No cause determined yet for the crash, police said. Watch video
SOUTH BRUNSWICK -- The condition of the two soldiers critically injured in a crash on the N.J. Turnpike Thursday afternoon has improved, according to Capt. Steven Jones, a spokesman for the N.J. State Police.
Jones said the two who were critical are now stable and the other two are listed in serious condition. All are at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.
He said the soldiers were in a military Humvee that was part of a small convoy of military vehicles headed south in the right lane of the outer lanes of the highway at 2:33 p.m. when the driver, Sgt. Gedry Concepcion-Munez, 29, of the Bronx, N.Y., lost control, struck a guardrail and overturned, at milepost 74.9.
Jones said the Humvee was the last vehicle in the convoy. He said several of the soldiers in the convoy and civilians tried to help before emergency personnel arrived.
Concepcion-Munez and the other three, Sgt. Theodore Jackson, 40, of Lincoln Park, Spc. Marcos Santana, 34, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,and Pfc. Deborah Perez, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y. are Army Reserve soldiers from the 533rd Brigade Support Battalion stationed at Fort Totten in Queens, N.Y., according to a press release issued by the U.S. Army Thursday.
Jones would not confirm that Perez lost her leg in the crash, only that "she had a severe leg injury."
Jones said the State Police do not know where the convoy was headed when the accident occurred or what caused the driver to lose control.
"The Humvee has been impounded and our experts along with Army mechanics will be going over that," he said.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.