Rookie trooper killed on the job while responding to a call for service on Highway 55.
TRENTON -- Rows of police officers, standing at attention awash in red and blue emergency lights, saluted the car carrying the trooper away from the hospital in the dead of night.
New Jersey State Trooper Frankie Williams, 31, died late Monday from injuries sustained in a head-on collision on Highway 55 in Millville City, a dangerous stretch of roadway that's seen at least a dozen fatal accidents this year, according to the State Police.
State Trooper Frankie Williams, 31, was killed in an on-duty crash on Monday, December 5. The rookie trooper graduated from the academy in January, part of the division's 156th class, and was assigned to the Port Norris Station in Cumberland County.
Not even a year on the job he worked tirelessly toward, a family friend said he had also just gotten married in October.
"The division lost an exemplary young trooper with the promise of a great career," said Col. Rick Fuentes, the head of the State Police. "A family lost an only child, a wife lost a husband, and New Jersey lost a leader and a role model."
Authorities say the trooper was headed northbound on the highway near mile marker 22, responding to a report of an erratic driver, when a man traveling the other way crossed the grassy median and hit his marked troop car head-on, tangling the two cars in a wreck that took hours to clear.
The driver was identified Tuesday as Lloyd Rudley, 61, of Elmer. Authorities said Rudley's Toyota Corolla "matched witness descriptions of a vehicle that was driving erratically in the area."
Mike Lippincott, the chief of the Millville Fire Department, said emergency crews arrived to find a "very bad" scene, with both drivers "heavily trapped."
Photos: NJ State Police's fallen troopers
Rudley was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, a State Police spokesman said.
Williams was flown to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where he was later pronounced dead. By then, more than 50 fellow troopers and police officers had arrived to hold vigil and stood at attention as his body was driven away from the hospital, a county spokesman said.
Williams, an Atlantic County resident, was remembered Tuesday as a dedicated trooper who spent years working full-time as he studied criminal justice, dreaming of entering the academy and joining the statewide force.
Not long after he earned his badge, in August, he made headlines when he rescued a small dog that had been locked in a hot car in Salem County and was suffering from severe heat stroke. The trooper smashed the car window with his baton and took the dog to a shaded area, dousing it with water to cool it down, authorities said at the time.
Trooper smashes car window to save poodle
"He performed his duty more like a six-year veteran than a six-month rookie," a State Police spokesman wrote in a remembrance posted on the division's Facebook page Tuesday morning.
Elizabeth Moore, a site coordinator for a Rutgers University program that allows students at Atlantic Cape Community College to study toward a university degree, remembered Williams as a star student at her program.
"He was a leader among his peers and just a very kind and well-spoken individual," she said Tuesday. "He always wanted to be a state trooper."
Williams worked as a security manager at a Lowe's home improvement store while attending school and graduated from Rutgers-Camden with a degree in criminal justice in 2012. That year, Moore said, he was the guest speaker at the dedication for a building where he had just taken classes.
She kept in touch with the trooper as he studied toward a master's degree, hoping to learn more about forensics and data analysis in policing. She said he was devoted to his wife, Kimberly, whom he married in October.
"When he was graduating from the academy, he came to see me and he told me he never would have made it through without her," Moore said. "He gave her all the credit."
Reached Tuesday, a relative said Williams' family was still in mourning, and authorities asked the media to request their privacy. Academy classmates, too, were in shock and declined interview requests.
Funeral arrangements had not yet been announced on Tuesday, but friends and family posted remembrances on social media, and a series of elected officials offered tributes.
Our condolences and prayers are with the family and friends of Trooper Frankie Williams and the entire @NJSP community. https://t.co/ZwelhrFfPO
-- Governor Christie (@GovChristie) December 6, 2016
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez said in a statement that the trooper's loss was "being felt statewide, and his sacrifice will never be forgotten." Sen. Cory Booker called him "a true hero and public servant." And Gov. Chris Christie offered "condolences and prayers" for the trooper's family.
At the Port Norris barracks where the trooper was stationed, the flag flew at half staff.
Williams was the 71st trooper to die on the job in the force's 95-year history.
While fatal shootings of law enforcement personnel have captured national attention in recent months, the leading cause of death for police officers is automobile accidents, according to state and national data.
That's especially true here in New Jersey, where the last four state troopers who died in the line of duty were killed in car crashes or struck while on foot -- all of them in the last two years.
Reporters Don E. Woods and Rebecca Everett contributed to this story.
S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.