Woman Allegedly Eludes Police After Hitting Cop Car on Closed NY Bridge

A Plainsboro woman was arrested by East Windsor police in Howell after failing to stop for police shortly after midnight on Aug. 23. 

According to police, the driver, identified as Diane Rothschild, 55, was driving a red Jeep in the area of Twin Rivers Drive and Nettleton Drive without headlights on. Patrolman Ryan Ballard began following the Jeep on Nettleton Drive when the vehicle left the road and began driving on the grass towards Abbington Drive, police said. 

Ballard attempted to stop Rothschild, but she kept driving eastbound on Route 33; she eventually pulled over in Howell Township and she was arrested without incident, police said. 

East Windsor police charged Rothschild with eluding, disorderly conduct, headlights required, failure to signal turn, speeding, failure to maintain lane, reckless driving, careless driving, operating a motor vehicle on private property to avoid traffic control device/sign, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident and failure to yield to emergency vehicle. 

According to the Staten Island Advance, Rothschild had left the scene of an accident after she crashed her Jeep into a Port Authority police car on the Outer Bridge Crossing earlier in the night on Aug. 22.  The collision happened two hours after the bridge had been closed for a repaving project, according to the report. 

Rothschild reportedly veered around traffic cones on the bridge and struck a police car which resulted in an injury to an officer, according to the report. She left the scene and then proceeded down the New Jersey Turnpike and into East Windsor where Patrolman Ballard spotted the vehicle.  

In addition to the East Windsor charges brought against her, Rothschild was sent to Plainsboro Medical Center for treatment and Port Authority detectives arrested her from there, the report said. 

The Port Authority officer was transported to Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Brunswick where he was treated and released for neck and back pain, the report said.