Ahead of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, New Jersey police urged motorists to be safe on the roads and, as always, were pulling for a fatality count of zero.

Traffic jam with rows of cars
Aleksandra Glustsenko, ThinkStock
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Once again, that did not happen, according to statewide fatal accident statistics.

Between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Monday, the state saw four deadly crashes that resulted in five fatalities.

"Two were in Bergen County, one was in Camden County and one was in Passaic County," said Capt. Brian Polite of the New Jersey State Police.

Among the victims - a 45-year-old Teaneck nurse who was on her way to a family Thanksgiving Day celebration when she collided with another vehicle. In Winslow Township, two young adults - a driver and passenger - were killed after striking another car head-on.

This year's five deaths represent a big drop-off from last year's 15 deaths over the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to numbers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Polite said this past weekend's statistics are generally in line with the stats of a typical New Jersey weekend.

"As a whole, drivers are doing the right thing," Polite said. "They're wearing seat belts, they're focusing on driving...People are getting designated drivers."

Polite noted none of the crashes occurred on roads handled by the State Police.

It was a deadly Thanksgiving beyond traffic fatalities in New Jersey. A young man was killed and his brother injured in a mall parking lot shooting in South Jersey early Friday morning. On Sunday night, a person was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Edison.

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Contact reporter Dino Flammia at dino.flammia@townsquaremedia.com.

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