New Jersey state trooper recovering from highway crash

WARREN TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- A crash involving a state police vehicle on an interstate highway in New Jersey has left a trooper with serious leg injuries that are not considered life-threatening.

State police say the crash occurred around 3:20 p.m. Monday in the eastbound lanes of I-78 in Warren Township.

They say a marked car driven by trooper Jeffrey Almeida and a car driven by Marquis Godfrey, 29, of Newark, collided near milepost 40.8. The trooper's car went off the left side of the roadway, entered the center grass median and struck several trees.

Emergency crews needed more than 30 minutes to extricate the 26-year-old trooper from the vehicle. He was later flown by helicopter to a hospital.

Almeida remained hospitalized Tuesday. Godfrey wasn't injured.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.