Crime & Safety

Fatal Cooper Road Crash Kills Middletown Teen

The driver, a Red Bank teen, and rear passenger, of Middletown, survived

Middletown Township police and detectives at the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating, “particularly for alcohol impairment and/or excessive speed,” a fatal accident involving three 18-year-old Brookdale Community College students that occurred in the early morning hours of Sunday on Cooper Road, Deputy First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Michael Cunningham said on Monday afternoon.

The front passenger of the car was killed; and, the driver and rear passenger survived what were deemed “non life-threatening injuries.” The two survivors are being treated at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. 

At 2:05 a.m. on Sunday morning, when a 1992 Honda Accord, driven by 18-year-old Adam Sofio, of Red Bank, crashed into a tree, splitting the passenger side of the vehicle, Middletown Resident Paul Bradley, also 18, was killed.  The car “was being operated in a westerly direction on Cooper Road, when the operator lost control of the vehicle,” Cunningham said. “The vehicle went off the west side of the roadway, striking a tree broadside.” The street's speed limit is 25 miles per hour.

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Bradley was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:10 a.m. by a Monmouth Medical Center doctor, after being diagnosed remotely via a procedure called telemetry, which Cunningham called a common procedure used by emergency responders.

The cause of Bradley’s death was determined to be “head, chest and abdominal injuries due to being a passenger in a motor vehicle which was involved in a collision,” Cunningham said.

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Middletown resident, 18-year-old John Vogel, who was the right rear passenger of the car, has a fractured right femur and a dislocated pelvis. Sofio has a fracture in the middle of his back and a left hip fracture/dislocation, he added.

The two were medivaced (transported by helicopter) to Jersey Shore University Medical Center from the accident site between Sleepy Hollow Road and Route 35. They remain stable, but Cunningham said he is awaiting condition updates.

No charges have yet been filed and the accident remains under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office and Middletown Police Lt. John Maguire and officers Cliff Chara and Darrin Simon.


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