wow! so sad...my heart goes out to the family.

yes, condolences to family friends and loved ones...my concern is that so many trees and power poles remain very close to the roads all over town and a present needless risk to the motoring public, to say nothing of branches that often strike power lines and cut off service.

Those trees and poles are especially concerning when your driving drunk. I cannot tell you how many times I almost hit them coming home from the bar. The town should really remove all the tree and poles in town.

One third of all traffic fatalities occur when a vehicle leaves the road, often hitting trees or utility poles, or overturning. In rural areas, two thirds of traffic deaths are due to these "run-off-the-road" crashes. And unlike other areas of highway safety, such as driver behavior and vehicle design, where significant gains have been made, the percentage of fatalities related to crashes with roadside hazards has actually risen over the past two decades. Driving with extra care and alertness on smaller roads can save lives.
Smartmotorist.com

John, huh? you seem to be hung up on fruity comparisons, some one has died here, striking an 'attractive nusance' as defined by law, and from the sorry statistics, complied by NTHSA , 1/3rd of traffic fatalities are attributed to trees and poles near a roadside, what more cold sop in the face sense does one need to grasp the clear and present danger these objects present to any motorist?
No doubt what comes next is a wrongful death law suit, where the township, knew, or should have known that allowing these imovable objects so close to any road way would lead to injury and death.
All over town there are examples of them within mere feet of automoblies, and its time to address the problem.

When I was a kid our neighbors across the street use to have a giant oak tree in their front yard. It must have been 100 years old. Our family moved to a new home and I never saw that oak tree again. I really miss that tree. Hope that helps.

Hey Frankie McKormick-you're an idiot. Driving drunk? You're an even bigger jackass for admitting it to all the world. If (and probably when) you you crash one day, I hope you kill yourself and not take out innocents. What a moron.

ditto
Frankie McKormick is an alias
Although I believe that it is ......
I leave it up to Frankie from the block who sings, but not to the right people

Stewart, your right, there has been a terrible tragedy here.

With that in mind, there are millions of vehicles that pass roadside (meaning off side of the road) hazards without difficulty. Using a broadstroke to condemn any tree near a road is a bit harsh. Would you be proposing the elimination of trees in the right of way or the systematic clearing of trees in general to make sure cars that leave the road are safe from hazard? I think Jeff Teitel and the Sierra Club may have issue with that. Keep in mind if the trees are gone, what keeps the road from being widened leading to more traffic, pollution, runoff and less trees / grass / and soil to catch rain water.

Bill thanks for asking, you do make a good point about the broadstroke, unfortunately because there seems to be so many examples of how close poles and trees are to the roads here about, and the NHTSA stats of 1/3 of fatalities being attributal to these, can we find common ground in asking the townhip for a road survey to identify really bad instances?
There seems to be a movement to place power lines below ground all across the country, and on our block, they are already below ground, and no trees are within several yards of the street as well.
I think NJ has plenty of trees already, and few thousand more or less to avoid fatalities may be a compromise the Sierra Club could 'live' with as well.
We see set backs in building permits as a matter of routine, the township and state are growing, traffic has increased and I feel it is reasonable to adjust to those changes in statistics. I am not a hydrologist, maybe th sierra Club could very well be an asset and partner by bringing their expertise to the table?

CKS, as a matter of fact, all the objects you refer too are road hazards!

Hey Stewie--I was being facetious--just like when I said that I'd be curious to see the toxicology report ON THE TREE! Stop blaming accidents on inanimate objects when most accident are cause by inattentive driving. Sometimes mechanical failure is the cause, but I'll bet, not in 99% of MVAs.
It will be interesting to see if the driver in this accident was drunk--gee, what do you think--three guy at 2:30 am--hmmmm. Bet there will be a lawsuit --and not against the tree--but perhaps the driver?????

CKS I have to believe were the driver under the influence the police report would have revealed it.

You are wrong and have your heads up your ass. No alcohol, no drugs and no texting were involved in this terrible accident. In experienced driving is the current theory. Could have been tired driver or even a deer...no one knows and no may ever know. Stephen was a dear friend and his death was senseless. Somebody upstairs got it wrong. God rest his soul.

The infinity's independent front and rear coil springs, shocks and stabilizer bars are tuned to keep the car on the road. The problem with these cars is the 330 hp rear wheel drive is coupled with the all aluminum engine ( very light ). Over-all, the car is an excellent flat terrain/road racer, but to light when riding over humps and bumps on country roads at higher rates of speed. The superb suspension floats across the road surface when air gets up underneath the car and that happens when you travel over a hump or come up out of a dip faster than the speed in which the road was designed to travel. The car is probably sitting in an impound staring out at some fence thinking "look what this stupid driver did to me and my passenger".