KEARNY — Details remain unclear more than a week after a five-car crash on County Road 508 took the lives of a North Jersey school vice principal and her husband.
Rhakeem Oliver of West Orange was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on March 16, and his wife, Shavonn Stewart-Oliver, vice principal of School 6 in Passaic, died Friday.
Stewart-Oliver was conscious after the accident and was being treated for a leg injury at Jersey City Medical Center, Kearny police said.
The circumstances surrounding her death a week after the initial crash are unclear.
"She was expected to fully recover," Kearny police Detective Sgt. Michal Gontarczuk said Monday morning. "She was talking to our officers."
Hudson County Prosecutor's Office officials did not provide any information about the nature of the crash or how many others were injured in the accident, which took place on the county road also known as Newark-Jersey City Turnpike.
Officials have also not released any information about the status of the deceased couple's 17-year-old daughter, Khameryn, who was also injured in the crash. She is believed to have been taken to Jersey City Medical Center, but as of Monday, her condition remained unknown.
The teen is a student at Paramus Catholic High School, where she plays volleyball and runs hurdles on the indoor track team.
Caitlin Mota, public information officer for the Prosecutor's Office, said the prosecutor and Kearny police are still investigating the accident.
What we know so far
According to the police report, on Saturday, March 16, at about 7 a.m., the Kearny Police Department received a call about a motor vehicle accident involving trapped motorists and possible severe injuries.
Officers who arrived at the scene found that five vehicles were involved, including one that had rolled over. Oliver, a passenger in one of the vehicles, was pronounced dead, and several others sustained serious bodily injuries, the police report says.
The Kearny Police Department Traffic Unit is investigating with the help of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Regional Fatal Collision Unit, but no motor vehicle summonses have been issued, the account says.
Passaic school administrator
Stewart-Oliver's LinkedIn account said she had been employed by Passaic Public Schools for 11 years. She began her career as a special education teacher in 2013. In 2019, a Facebook post mentioned that she became vice principal of School 20 in Passaic, which is the district's Gifted and Talented Academy.
It is not clear when she became vice principal of School 6. The district's administration did not respond to requests for information.
A bad stretch of road
Gontarczuk said the stretch of road where the crash took place can be particularly dangerous.
Although it does not have a large volume of accidents, those that occur there are often very serious, Gontarczuk said.
"That part of the roadway needs a median," he said of the four-lane county road, which has turning lanes at various intervals. A median might keep cars from colliding, he said.
Many of the accidents on the road, he said, involve vehicles crossing over the yellow line and into oncoming traffic, leading to head-on collisions. He did not say whether the accident that took the lives of the Olivers involved a head-on crash.
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