U.F. resident charged over fatal collision on Meirs Rd. UPPER FREEHOLD - A 27-year-old township man faces charges including vehicular homicide in relation to a 2006 Meirs Road car crash that claimed the life of an Allentown woman. A Monmouth County grand jury returned an indictment Sept. 30 charging Louis A. Tufano Jr. with one count of seconddegree vehicular homicide and three counts of fourth-degree assault by auto. The charges follow an investigation into the Feb. 2, 2006, two-car collision, which occurred at approximately 4:16 p.m., according to a Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office press release. "The reckless operation of a motor vehicle on the streets of Monmouth County has had a profound effect on a number of victims," Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin said in the press release. "An innocent woman lost her life, and her husband and two others sustained serious injuries." The New Jersey State Police investigated the crash and found that Tufano was operating a 1993 Toyota southbound on Meirs Road at an excessive amount of speed in the area of a hillcrest approximately .5 mile north of Burlington Path Road when his vehicle became airborne. Tufano's vehicle landed in the opposite lane of travel where it collided headon with a Buick LeSabre occupied by an Allentown couple, according to the press release. Ethelyn Maginnis, 75, a passenger in the Buick, suffered blunt trauma injuries to her chest and abdomen and was pronounced dead at the scene. Her 80-year-old husband, William, who was driving the Buick, suffered numerous lacerations, contusions and fractures, and was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton where he underwent emergency medical treatment. Two additional passengers in Tufano's car, a 16-year-old Middletown girl and David Morrissey, 26, of the New Egypt section of Plumsted, also received emergency medical treatment for injuries they sustained in the crash. Tufano was arrested Sept. 22, 2006, and was released later that day after posting $50,000 bail using the 10 percent option set by Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Scully. If convicted of vehicular manslaughter, Tufano would face a potential state prison sentence of up to 10 years. Any custodial sentence for that crime would fall subject to the No Early Release Act, which would require that Tufano serve 85 percent of the sentence imposed before he could be released on parole, according to the press release. If convicted, each of the assault by auto charges could expose Tufano to an additional custodial sentence of up to 18 months, according to the press release.