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Driver That Caused Fatal Elizabeth Crash Pleads Not Guilty

Elizabeth

A man accused of leading police on a vehicle pursuit that ended in a fatal accident in Elizabeth, has been reportedly arrested over 50 times in California, according to authorities.

Danny Clyde Burnam, a.k.a. Danny Clyde Williams, 57, who has known
 addresses in California and Colorado, has used as many as 10 different aliases and eight separate social security numbers.

Authorities say that at approximately midnight, Burnam was driving a Freightliner cab-style commercial tractor in the area of First Street and Elizabeth Avenue when he first struck a vehicle, according to a preliminary investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office that remains ongoing.

The uninjured driver of the struck vehicle

attempted to get Burnam to stop, but instead he headed northwest on Elizabeth Avenue.

Moments later, near the intersection of North Broad Street and Elizabeth Avenue, an off-duty Union County Police Department officer spotted Burnam driving erratically and also attempted to intervene; during this encounter, the officer fired a single round from his service weapon.

When he approached the area of North Broad Street and Parker Road, police had set up a barricade, two Elizabeth Police Department officers also fired their service weapons multiple times, striking Burnam.

Yet Burnam drove through the barricade, and approximately one half-mile north of that area, near the intersection of NorthAvenue and Newark Avenue, he collided head-on with another vehicle, instantly killing 24-year-old Jeffrey Oakley, of Elizabeth, and injuring the two other occupants of the vehicle.

The two injured victims were transported to a local hospital, while Burnam was apprehended and also hospitalized for treatment of non life-threatening injuries.

Williams' lawyer, entered not guilty pleas to charges of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, second-degree vehicular homicide and second-degree reckless aggravated assault and requested a bail reduction.

His attorney also requested a bail reduction from $2 million to $500,000, saying injuries he suffered would make him an unlikely flight risk. However, the judge denied request taking into account his history.

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