Family: Couple injured in deadly Toms River crash showing significant improvement
19-year-old Ryan Chapman and 21-year-old Krista Armstrong were seriously injured in the crash. Two of their friends were killed.
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Family members say that the two survivors from Friday night's deadly crash on Route 37 in Toms River are showing significant improvement.
They say both 19-year-old Ryan Chapman and 21-year-old Krista Armstrong have been moved to the Intensive Care Unit to begin their recovery process. They are being treated at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune.
Ryan Chapman's stepbrother, Cole Crozier, says his brother is sitting up and speaking after suffering a head wound that caused bleeding to the brain.
Chapman was ejected from the back seat of a car and also suffered a broken pelvis and ankle. Crozier says he's been visiting Chapman every day.
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“It’s nice to hear him talk, to feel him, hold his hand when at his bedside," Crozier says. “It’s hard because if you know Ryan, he’s energetic. As a kid, he was off the walls.”
On Friday, just before 11 p.m., Chapman was one of four inside of a Toyota Camry when it was hit broadside by a speeding car that ran a red light. The four victims were driving home from the New Jersey Devils hockey game in Newark.
Chapman was in the back seat with Armstrong, who is his girlfriend. Armstrong’s twin sister, Kiley RiverCrash
and driver, Evan Fiore, were in the front seat and killed on impact.
Crozier says he has not yet been to that crash site.
“I’ve driven past it, but I don’t like to sit there and look at it. It’s terrible," he says.
However, friends who did stop at the scene found Chapman’s Devils hat, which he bought at the game that night. They have given it to Crozier to return to his stepbrother.
Crozier has also started a GoFundMe page, which has already raised $170,000. All of it will go to burial and medical expenses for the families of the victims.
Meanwhile, a police investigation is ongoing. Officials say an unlicensed teen has been arrested for driving the BMW that hit the Camry. The teen driver and two others in the car have not been identified.
