Unlicensed driver sentenced to prison for crash that killed N.J. man [Video]

A young unlicensed driver was sentenced in Middlesex County on Friday to three years in prison for a highway crash that killed a 69-year-old New Brunswick man, authorities said.

Manuel Centeno-Rodriguez, 18, was driving a pickup truck about 6 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2023, when he crashed into the rear of a Volkswagen Golf stopped in traffic at Route 130 and Renaissance Boulevard in North Brunswick.

The impact sent the Volkswagen Golf into another car that was also stopped in traffic, authorities said.

The crash fatally injured Silverio Castro-Martinez of New Brunswick, who was a rear passenger in the Golf, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone.

Castro-Martinez was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Ciccone said.

Two other people in the Golf sustained serious injuries, and a third passenger sustained minor injuries, Ciccone said.

Centeno-Rodriguez pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide and two …