Keisha P. Bruno, 37, dies after disabled Kia is struck on I-78 in Bedminster

Keisha P. Bruno, 37, of Princeton, died at an area hospital after the crash on Monday, November 2, 2026. Two other people were injured and taken to a hospital: Bruno’s front-seat passenger and the driver of a Volkswagen SUV that struck her Kia after it became disabled.⁠1

The detailed account comes from a preliminary state police investigation described by Trooper Christopher Postorino to Patch. It establishes an important sequence: the Kia was already disabled in the roadway when the later impact pushed it off the left side of the highway, where it overturned. That sequence is not, by itself, a finding of fault.⁠1

Troopers responded just after 1 a.m. ET to eastbound I-78 near milepost 27.8 in Bedminster Township, Somerset County. That is the reported response time, not a separately verified timestamp for either collision. The available account does not establish how much time passed between the first crash and the later impact.⁠1

Bruno was driving a Kia SUV with one passenger in the front seat. According to the preliminary investigation reported by Patch, the Kia first collided with a Volkswagen passenger vehicle and became disabled in the middle of the roadway. A Volkswagen SUV traveling eastbound then struck the Kia near the disabled vehicles.⁠1

The second impact pushed the Kia off the highway to the left. It overturned, and Bruno suffered serious injuries. She was taken to an area hospital, where she later died from those injuries, according to Postorino’s account.⁠1

The surviving passenger’s location is important to get right: that person was riding in Bruno’s Kia, not in the Volkswagen SUV that subsequently struck it. Police described the Kia passenger’s injuries as minor and the Volkswagen SUV driver’s injuries as moderate. Both were taken to an area hospital; no more recent medical conditions have been established in the available reporting.⁠1

The vehicle count is less clear. Patch’s account describes a Volkswagen passenger vehicle in the initial collision and a Volkswagen SUV in the subsequent impact. Those descriptions suggest distinct vehicles, but the account does not explicitly settle the total number involved. A definitive vehicle count would go beyond what the preliminary information establishes.⁠1

The more detailed police account also supersedes an earlier location estimate. RLS Media’s November 2 report, published at 4:14 a.m. EST, cited preliminary emergency information placing the response near milepost 27.5, with dispatch shortly before 1:30 a.m. Patch’s account places the troopers’ response near milepost 27.8, just after 1 a.m.⁠2⁠1

These are differing early descriptions of the same overnight incident, not evidence of a second crash. Dispatch and response descriptions also do not establish separate collision times. Milepost 27.8 is the location given in the more specific account of the state police investigation.⁠1⁠2

RLS Media reported that eastbound lanes were closed overnight. Its account does not establish how many lanes were closed, whether the entire eastbound roadway was shut or when lanes reopened. The overnight closure should therefore not be read as a statement that restrictions remain in place.⁠2

No verified, timestamped reopening update is established by the available NJ 511 material either. That leaves present road conditions unconfirmed; an absence of a matching incident entry is not proof that the roadway reopened.⁠12⁠13⁠14

The central investigative question remains separate from the traffic update. Police have described where the Kia was before the later impact and what happened afterward. They have not said why the first collision occurred or assigned responsibility for either collision. For now, the confirmed toll is one woman dead and two other people injured, with the circumstances that produced that toll still under investigation.⁠1