Route 495 crash at the Lincoln Tunnel approach: crash data and out-of-state insurance

How many crashes happen on Route 495?

About 650 a year. Police recorded 627 crashes on Route 495 in 2023 and 672 in 2024; 346 people were hurt and 1 was killed over the two years.

Weehawken, where the road drops to the tunnel plaza, holds half of them. North Bergen and Union City split most of the rest, and Secaucus, at the Turnpike end, sees few.

The 2025 count stands at 425 crashes and 61 injury crashes so far, a preliminary figure. Town-wide numbers beyond this road are on our North Bergen crash data page and the Hudson County accident hub.

What kind of crash is most common on the Lincoln Tunnel approach?

Same-direction sideswipes: 746 of 1,299 crashes, three times the statewide share. Fault in a lane-change sideswipe turns on who left their lane, as our guide to shared fault splits and evidence that proves fault explain.

Sideswipes rarely hurt anyone, though. Rear-end crashes are fewer but cause 58 percent of injury crashes, almost twice the 31 percent seen statewide.

In Weehawken alone, 405 of 661 crashes were sideswipes. Fault in stop-and-go impacts is covered in our New Jersey rear-end crash guide.

Where and when do Route 495 crashes cluster?

On the final half mile and in the evening rush out of Manhattan.

• Mileposts 2.5 to 3.0: 374 crashes, the most of any half mile.
• 3 pm to 6 pm: 263 crashes and 50 injury crashes, the busiest window; 6 am to 9 am: 218.
• Saturday: 45 injury crashes, the most of any day; Tuesday had 24.
• Most named cross streets: Kennedy Boulevard East (300 records), South Marginal Highway (150), Hudson Avenue (81) and Route 3 (67).
• 190 crashes on wet pavement and 376 after dark under street lights.

Drivers joining from the west come off Route 3 or the Turnpike. Their numbers are on our Route 3 crash data page; the other Hudson approach is in our Pulaski Skyway crash guide.

What does deemer state mean for a driver from New York?

It means New Jersey treats your out-of-state policy as a New Jersey one while you drive here. That applies if your insurer is authorized in New Jersey or affiliated with one that is.

For New York and Pennsylvania plates at the tunnel, that brings New Jersey PIP, uninsured motorist and minimum liability cover. It also puts you under the limitation on lawsuit, which limits suits for pain and suffering to serious injuries.

That holds even with full tort at home: the 1997 Whitaker case applied it to a Pennsylvania couple. If your insurer is not authorized here, the deemer rule does not apply, as our Route 72 visitor guide sets out.

Your PIP, or deemer PIP on an out-of-state policy, pays your medical bills whoever caused the crash; payer order is in PIP or health insurance first.³

What if the driver who hit you is from out of state?

Then the lawsuit limit may not protect them. Only a driver inside the New Jersey PIP system can invoke it, so a driver whose insurer is not authorized here cannot.

The Supreme Court set that rule in the 2009 Zabilowicz case. On an approach full of New York and Pennsylvania plates, ask who insures the other car.⁴

How the two lawsuit options work is set out in is New Jersey a no-fault state.

Who has the police report for a Route 495 crash?

Usually the town police or another agency, not the State Police. Only 26 of 425 Route 495 records in 2025 name a State Police station.

State Police fees and waits, and other departments, are compared in our New Jersey crash report guide.

What if a New York public vehicle was involved?

New York's own notice of claim rules may apply. In the 2025 Williams case against Ferro, about a garbage truck, the Appellate Division applied them and affirmed dismissal because they were not met.⁶

The New Jersey public entity notice and the lawsuit deadline are in our New Jersey accident deadline guide.