NJ high school student, ‘remarkable young man,’ dies in holiday crash

🚨 The teen died following a New Year's Day crash in South Brunswick

🚨 Shaheer Ansari, 15, of West Windsor, pronounced dead at a hospital

🚨 The teen's grandfather died just four hours before the crash

WEST WINDSOR — A 15-year-old boy died after a crash on Route 130 around sunrise on New Year's Day. It was the family's second tragedy in a matter of hours.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolonda Ciccone said the teen was the front-seat passenger in a 1998 Buick that hit a utility pole along the southbound lanes in South Brunswick around 7:25 a.m. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Three other children and an adult driver were also injured and taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Ciccone did not disclose the identities of anyone in the vehicle or the circumstances of the crash.

West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District Superintendent David Aderhold identified the teen as Shaheer Ansari, a 10th-grade student at High School South. Ansari was a member of the Muslim Student Association.

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'A remarkable young man'

Ansari was also a member of the Muslim Center of Greater Princeton, where he was a camp counselor, teaching assistant and a volunteer for events.

"To say it simply, he was a remarkable young man and a role model for both the young and the old, MashaAllah," the center said in a post.

His paternal grandfather had died just four hours before the crash on Route 130, according to the center.

School counselors, case managers, staff from Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, and members of the Mercer County Traumatic Loss Coalition will be available at High School South starting Monday, Jan. 6, to assist students with the grieving process.

State police records show there were three fatal crashes on Route 130 through Middlesex County and four in Mercer County in 2024.

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