A 22-year-old woman died Wednesday night after losing control of her car on southbound I-295, sending the vehicle off the roadway and into a tree before it burst into flames. Her 22-year-old passenger suffered serious injuries and had to be flown to a hospital.
Aigner Johnson was behind the wheel of a Ford sedan heading south on I-295 when, according to FOX 29, she lost control of the vehicle just before 5:30 p.m. near milepost 17.4 in East Greenwich Township. New Jersey State Police said the car veered off the right side of the highway and struck a tree, causing it to become engulfed in flames. Johnson sustained fatal injuries in the crash, state police said.
Her passenger, Nayazia Morgan, also 22, suffered serious injuries and was airlifted to a nearby hospital, according to the same report. State police had not released Morgan's condition as of the station's report. FOX 29 reported that no other vehicles were involved in the crash, with state police providing the information for the article.
Conflicting Accounts of the Scene
Separately, NBC Philadelphia described a very different scene at roughly the same stretch of highway, reporting that a major multi-car crash near Exit 17 in East Greenwich Township left several people critically hurt and shut down all southbound lanes. That station said at least one critically injured person was flown out by medical helicopter, and that the roadway later fully reopened. The two accounts do not match up, and nothing in the available reporting reconciles FOX 29's account of a single-vehicle crash with NBC Philadelphia's description of a multi-car pileup at the same general location.
A Dangerous Stretch of South Jersey Highway
The crash adds to a grim tally on South Jersey's limited-access highways. Roughly 330 fatal crashes occurred on those roadways between 2019 and July 2026, resulting in more than 360 deaths, according to an analysis by The Inquirer. Distracted driving played a role in nearly half of those fatal crashes, contributing to more than 140 deaths, the newspaper found.
A crash also occurred on nearby Route 55. A one-mile segment of I-295 itself, in Oldmans Township in Salem County, recorded seven fatal crashes over that same period, per the Inquirer's analysis.
Investigators believe Johnson lost control of her vehicle. Morgan's condition following her airlift remained unknown as of the latest available reporting.
