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Jaime Rojas, a 35-year-old repeat offender from Bloomfield, was standing at the bus shelter on the westbound side of the highway around 5:45 p.m. Thursday when police investigating a shoplifting at the nearby CVS spotted him, River Edge Police Chief Michael Walker said.
Seeing them, he bolted across the highway, the chief said.
Rojas made it across the westbound side and over the divider but was struck on the eastbound side, he said.
The driver told police she saw him tried but couldn't stop in time, causing a chain-reaction series of crashes, Walker said.
Rojas has a history of mostly shoplifting arrests, including one last month in Carlstadt and another this past summer in River Edge, along with priors in Fair Lawn and Nutley, records show. Each time he's been freed under New Jersey's 2017 bail reform law.
He was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with back and head injuries and subsequently charged with shoplifting on Thursday.
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