A 58-year-old Williamstown man was struck and killed while crossing Harding Highway in the Mays Landing section of Hamilton Township early Thursday morning, according to police. The victim, identified as Karl Hansen, was pronounced dead at the scene after a westbound car hit him near Cantillon Boulevard.
Police said the crash happened at 6:43 a.m. at Harding Highway and Cantillon Boulevard, according to Daily Voice. Officers said a 33-year-old Millville woman was driving a 2009 Toyota Camry westbound when she struck Hansen, who was crossing against the traffic signal at the time. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police told the outlet.
A separate report from Yahoo News placed the incident shortly before 7 a.m. at 5201 Harding Highway and said the victim's identity had not been immediately released at the time of that report. The Press of Atlantic City separately described the victim as a 58-year-old man from Williamstown, Gloucester County, killed while crossing the westbound lane of Harding Highway near Cantillon Boulevard, per pressofatlanticcity.com.
Highway Shut Down for Hours
Harding Highway was closed between River Drive and Thirty Second Street for approximately three hours while police worked the scene, the report notes. The crash remained under investigation as of publication, with no further details released about the Millville driver or any potential charges.
WPG Talk Radio 95.5 FM, which first reported the fatality, noted that the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office typically takes over jurisdiction of fatality cases in the county under a long-standing policy and is expected to provide guidance that the station says is usually timely. As of the station's report, the prosecutor's office had not released public information about the incident. Author Harry Hurley also reported that Ron Bailey, a member of the Atlantic City Board of Education, was at the scene when the incident occurred.
A Familiar, Deadly Stretch of Road
Thursday's crash marks at least the third fatal pedestrian or vehicle incident along this Hamilton Township corridor in roughly a year. An 83-year-old man was killed in a crash on Harding Highway near 19th Street in Mays Landing on Jan. 5, according to WPG Talk Radio 95.5 FM. Just over a week later, 44-year-old Michael Alvarez of Egg Harbor Township died after being struck by two vehicles while trying to cross Route 40 near the Mays Landing Wawa, as reported by breakingac.com, which said that road was closed for about four hours during the investigation.
In October 2025, a pedestrian died after being struck by an SUV in Hamilton Township, with police telling the outlet there were no designated crosswalks in that area. A portion of Route 322 was closed for several hours while Hamilton Township police investigated that earlier crash, according to the same breakingac.com report.
