North Brunswick teacher's fatal crash to be investigated by National Highway Transportation Safety Administration

SOUTH BRUNSWICK – Local traffic safety officers are asking the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to take over the investigation into the fiery crash of a 2013 Ford Edge that killed a popular teacher.

Aubrey Pappas, 35, died when the vehicle she was driving went off Deans Rhode Hall Road shortly before 2 p.m. Oct. 8, crashed into a tree and burst into flames. Pappas died at the scene.

Specifically, investigators want to determine why the vehicle caught fire.

“The case has been forwarded to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration for further inquiry into the vehicle fire,” police said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Officers with South Brunswick Police Department’s Traffic Safety Bureau determined the vehicle had just come over a peak of a small incline when its passenger tires left the right side of the roadway for 72 feet.

“The vehicle impacted a tree that was 3-feet, 7-inches off the roadway,” police said in the statement. “The vehicle rotated 120 degrees back into the roadway coming to rest facing southwest, in the westbound lane of travel. The vehicle subsequently caught fire.”

Investigators said they could not determine why the vehicle drifted off the roadway.

But once Pappas left the road, she “would have had .67 seconds to react before impact with the tree,” police said.

The statement did not say how fast Pappas was driving.

Pappas left her job at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick and was headed to her home in Monroe Township when the crash occurred.

The teacher was married to North Brunswick police Officer Paul Pappas Jr. The teacher was pregnant with her second child.

Police said there were a dozen witnesses to the events surrounding the crash. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office, Middlesex County Fire Marshal’s Office, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Ford Motor Company assisted in the six-week investigation, police said.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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