Victim's son in deadly Newark, N.J., laundromat crash mourns his mother, "my best friend"

The Essex County Prosecutor's office has identified the woman killed when a car crashed into a Newark, New Jersey, laundromat Monday. 

Ruth Benjamin, 81, was seated at a table near the front of the Ivy Hill Laundromat at around 2:30 p.m. when two vehicles crashed into the business on Irvington Avenue. 

"She was the backbone of the family" 

"That was my best friend. What can I tell you? I mean, I'm her only children," son Frenchie Benjamin said. "You expect your relatives to go, but you just don't know when. And at her age, you know, obviously time is very short."

"She was the backbone of the family. She cared about everybody," he added.   

The prosecutor says a pickup truck hit a parked vehicle outside the laundromat, and both crashed through the front window. Ruth Benjamin was killed, and an employee was also injured. 

Frenchie Benjamin believes it was an accident. He said his mother was retired from the Newark Board of Education. 

"She would get up and go about and do her thing, and then obviously she was doing her thing, washing her clothes becauce the machine was out. So that was it," he said. "She worked very hard, and even when I was in school, she would - we had one car, and she would bring it to me ... and even when I came out of school and got a job, she gave it to me and she would take the bus. That's just the kind of person she was." 

"This is like a raceway down here sometimes"

Police haven't released any information about the driver. The Essex County Prosecutor says the investigation is active and ongoing. 

One laundromat customer said cars speed through the parking lot sometimes. 

"This is like a raceway down here sometimes," the customer said.