A South Jersey doctor's friends want to know what caused him to drive into an N.J. trooper's car, killing them both
Friends of physician Lloyd Rudley, who has no surviving family, say he had a medical emergency — and was not drunk — when his car crashed into New Jersey State Trooper Frankie Williams' patrol vehicle.
In the nearly 100 days since physician Lloyd Rudley and New Jersey State Trooper Frankie Williams died in a head-on collision, friends of Rudley — who has no surviving family — have sought to counter suspicions that he was drunk.
Some people on social media jumped to that conclusion after Rudley drove across the grassy median of Route 55 in Millville and crashed into Williams' cruiser in December. But Rudley's longtime neighbors Steve and Janice Pollock insist that he never touched alcohol, and that he likely had a medical emergency related to diabetes.
The autopsy report is expected to be completed soon, state officials say. The Pollocks certainly hope so.
"It's important to us, and I think it's important to the medical profession and his name, that it should be cleared," Janice Pollock, 61, said. "Sometimes that's all you leave behind, is your reputation."
Rudley, 61, worked in a private practice at the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, which closed in 1997, and more recently ran a psychiatry practice in Elmer, Salem County, where he had a home next to the Pollocks'. Rudley also had an apartment in Philadelphia. Former patients described him on social media as "very dedicated."
Why the crash findings have yet to be released is unclear.
Toxicology test results — which will show whether Rudley had drugs or alcohol in his system — generally come back in 60 days.
Negative cases, in which nothing is detected, "are completed sooner," said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, which oversees the Medical Examiner's Office. "More complex cases will take longer, because they may require extensive testing or may need to be sent to an outside lab."
Aseltine said the final report in Rudley's case should be finished "soon," but did not offer a specific date.
Just before the crash, around 7 p.m. on Dec. 5, three people called 911 to report a Toyota Corolla, driven by Rudley, swerving. "I think there's a drunk driver right here in front of me," one woman told dispatchers. Another person reported that the car's front tire was blown out.
The Corolla then veered from the southbound lanes, crossed the median, and collided with Williams' patrol car in the northbound lanes. Williams, 31 — who became the fourth state trooper to die in a car accident in less than two years — had been responding to the 911 calls about Rudley's car.
Williams' family received an outpouring of support from state officials, and his funeral drew more than 1,000 people. Rudley's drew less than 20.
Rudley had no siblings or children, and his parents died years ago. The Pollocks said Rudley was private but ws well-known among his patients. He was valedictorian in Vineland High School's Class of 1973.
Another friend of Rudley told Philly.com in December that Rudley had injected himself with insulin since he was 8 to counter diabetes, and that several years ago, he was hospitalized after being found unconscious in his Elmer home.