A roadside memorial to Jillian Dinger, below, at the scene of the accident in which she was fatally injured. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A 19-year-old Fair Haven woman home from college for Easter weekend died as a result of a pre-dawn accident on Harding Road in Little Silver last Friday, police said Monday.
Jillian Dinger, of Spruce Drive, died at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune eight hours after being struck by a car driven by another Fair Haven resident at about 3:15 a.m., said police Chief Dan Shaffery.
Authorities are still piecing together the circumstances under which Dinger, a 2011 graduate of Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High, was found alone and severely injured near the center line of the road, opposite the entrance to the Alderbrook condo community, he said.
Shaffery said Dinger was struck by a 2007 Nissan Altima driven by Robert Post, 53, who called in the accident to police.
On arrival, police found Dinger lying just to the south of the road’s center line, which serves as the Fair Haven-Little Silver border.
Post’s vehicle had sustained damage to the front end on the driver’s side, Shaffery said.
The victim was wearing “all-dark clothing,” he said. No charges have been filed against Post, “and none are expected to be filed against him,” Shaffery said.
Dinger was medevaced by a helicopter that landed at nearby Red Bank Regional High and taken to the hospital, where she died at 11:14 a.m. Shaffery said.
Borough police and a team from the Monmouth County Serious Collision Analysis Response Team (SCART) are investigating, and are retracing Dinger’s steps and communications to determine as fully as possible her state of mind and destination at the time she was hit, Shaffery said.
Police have determined that she was last visiting a home on nearby Prospect Avenue in Little Silver, Shaffery said. The results of a toxicology test will not be available for two-to-four weeks, he said.
Dinger was a freshman at the State University of New York at Albany, where she was majoring in psychology, according to her obituary, which appeared Sunday in the Asbury Park Press. Shaffery said she had come home for the Easter weekend.
Dinger had worked at the Sands Beach Club in Sea Bright, according to her obituary.
A roadside memorial of lillies, balloons and candies was erected Sunday at the scene of the accident.
