Newark, May 25 (RHC)-- The lives of Nobel prize-winning mathematician John Nash and his wife were claimed by a car crash in New Jersey. The Princeton University mathematician and his wife, Alicia, were killed when their taxi crashed in New Jersey on Saturday, according to U.S. police.

Nash, 86, and his 82-year-old wife were riding in a taxi near Monroe Township on the New Jersey Turnpike when the accident took place, State Police Sergeant 1st Class Gregory Williams said. He added that they were traveling southbound in the left lane when the taxi went out of control while attempting to overpass another vehicle.

The taxi cab crashed into the guard rail, and the couple was pronounced dead at the scene, Williams said. The two were not wearing their seat belts and therefore were thrown out of the vehicle. The couple had just flown home and they had taken a taxi home from the airport, said one of Nash's colleagues.

Nash, whose works are focused on game theory, won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994. The "game" is an attempt to model the process of decision-making, the decision makers and the outcomes of those decisions.

The Nobel winning Nash equilibrium describes situations where none of the players in a complex game will benefit from changing strategy after considering their opponents, for example, the U.S. and USSR could be said to have been in similar situation during the Cold War, where they were aware of each other's position but did not start a nuclear war.

The theory is mainly used in economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic, computer science, and biology. In a statement, Christopher Eisgruber, the president of Princeton University, said: "John's remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant, groundbreaking work in game theory, and the story of his life with Alicia moved millions of readers and moviegoers who marveled at their courage."

Nash's vast intellect and descent into paranoid schizophrenia formed the basis of the 2001 academy award winning movie a "A Beautiful Mind." Hollywood actor Russell Crowe, who played the role of Nash in the film, said in a tweet that he was "stunned" by the news of the fatal accident.