EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — An allegedly impaired driver was charged with assault by auto after the car he was driving crashed into a utility pole on Ocean Heights Avenue early Monday, police said.

Cleesman Lopez-Cruz, 24, was driving a 2010 GMC Yukon west on Ocean Heights near South Jersey Yacht Sales when the vehicle left the road and struck the pole at 12:36 a.m., police said in a news release.

A 25-year-old passenger from Atlantic City sustained minor injuries.

The road was closed for nearly 12 hours between Steelmanville and Zion roads, police said.

"Once again, this is the result of an impaired driver — an inconvenience to all of us in the community who are mostly responsible, but now impacted as a result of the irresponsible," police wrote in an earlier Facebook post warning of the ro

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