Former Mayor Ed McKenna tallies election returns at Democratic HQ last November. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Former Red Bank Mayor Ed McKenna was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after a one-car accident on the Garden State Parkway Monday night, State Police said Wednesday.
According to agency spokesman Sergeant Adam Grossman, McKenna was traveling northbound in the express lanes of the highway in Tinton Falls at about 9:50 p.m. when his black 2012 Mercedes sedan “traveled along the guardrail, then stopped in a position facing oncoming traffic in the right lane.”
McKenna is alleged to have then resumed driving south, in the direction of oncoming cars, before stopping on the shoulder in the vicinity of milepost 108.
It was there that State Police approached and arrested him, Grossman said. McKenna was transported to the Holmdel barracks, where he was booked an released, he said.
McKenna did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.
The arrest was first reported Art Gallagher, publisher of the right-leaning More Monmouth Musings blog.
McKenna, 63, was involved in an an accident in 2009, when he struck a pedestrian crossing East Front Street outside Riverview Medical Center. The extent of the victim’s injuries were not reported by police at the time, and McKenna was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a right-of-way.
In October, 2000, McKenna was involved in a fender-bender at milepost 110 of the Parkway that raised questions about whether he had improperly left the scene before police arrived.
McKenna said he had identified himself to the driver of the other car and left the scene after waiting a while for police to arrive.
Later, State Police went to McKenna’s home to question him but were told by his wife that he had taken a painkiller for a shoulder injury and was asleep.
McKenna, an attorney, served as borough mayor from 1990 through 2006, and is widely credited for resuscitating the economically struggling town from its ‘Dead Bank’ era. He is currently chairman of the New Jersey State Planning Commission.
