HAMILTON (Mercer) — A South Jersey woman says her finger was sliced off by a piece of metal that flew off a truck on Route 295.

The 76-year-old woman told the Trentonian she and other drivers were trying to stay far from an "old, white, dirty" dump truck with no name on the side, after a piece of metal came out from the wheel section. Once she was in the far right lane, she felt safe in passing the truck, she told the newspaper.

As the woman, made her move near the Sloan Avenue exit in Hamilton, she noticed another piece of metal shoot 30 to 40 feet in the air, she said. She said she thought it would go into the woods.

Instead, it crashed through her windshield, scattering glass into her mouth and hair as it cut through the middle finger on her left hand, she said. The tendons on her right-hand index finger were also severed, but stitched back together, she said. She said the truck drove off.

The newspaper did not disclose her name but New Jersey State Police in a Facebook post identified her as Alice Gaines of Moorestown.

NJ State Police spokesman Trooper Alejandro Goez confirmed the incident to New Jersey 101.5, and said the woman was taken to Helen Fuld Medical Center for treatment. The incident remained under investigation.

Last January a Hamilton (Mercer) man died after a 50-pound dumb bell crashed through his mini-van's windshield at the southern end of  the New Jersey Turnpike. Later in the mont,  a hammer came through the windshield of a Lexus ES on the Garden State Parkway near Metropark.

Goez said any witnesses to the Route 295 incident should contact the Hamilton State Police station at 609-584-5000 ext. 5297.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ.

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