Metro Atlanta Truck Driver Charged In Tracy Morgan Crash In N.J.

By Tom Davis

A truck driver from Georgia was charged Saturday with causing a six-car crash that killed one and critically injured Saturday Night Live alum Tracy Morgan on the New Jersey Turnpike in Cranbury, authorities said.

Kevin Roper, 35, of Jonesboro, was charged with one count of death by auto and four counts of assault by auto after the tractor-trailer he was driving crashed into the van at 1 a.m. Saturday, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.

A passenger in the van, James McNair, 62, of Peekskill, N.Y., was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:53 a.m. The four other passengers, including Morgan, were taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

Morgan and another passenger, a 36-year-old man from Shelton, Ct., were airlifted to the hospital, according to the prosecutor's office. 

Morgan, 45, the Connecticut man, and another passenger, a 43-year-old man from Jersey City, remain in critical condition. Morgan is a former star of Saturday Night Live and the T.V. show "30 Rock."

The remaining passenger was treated at the hospital and was released.

Bail was set at $50,000 for the tractor-trailer driver, who is expected to surrender, according to the prosecutor's office.

A preliminary investigation determined that the tractor-trailer crashed into the van, a 2012 Mercedes Sprinter, as both vehicles traveled in the northbound lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike. Four other vehicles were involved in the crash. None of the occupants of those vehicles was injured, according to the prosecutor's office. 

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.