A school bus carrying 42 people, including children, overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike Saturday, resulting in 36 people being injured and taken to a hospital, CBS New York reports.
The crash happened at approximately 5:25 p.m. as the bus was returning from the 4th Annual Mayor’s Family Reunion/Picnic in Millstone, the City of Newark announced in a Facebook post. The post also added that it occurred in the Northbound lanes near milepost 79.9 of the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick.
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced at a press conference that there were no fatalities, and 17 of the injured are children. Those hurt were taken to area hospitals, where Baraka said they are all in stable condition and some have been discharged.
School bus with 42 on board flips after hit-and-run on New Jersey Turnpike, police say https://t.co/Co2VGOW4ST pic.twitter.com/YKWu81Miew
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 12, 2018
While the accident was initially reported as a hit-and-run accident, the mayor said those reports are incorrect, and the cause of the crash hasn’t yet been revealed. However, a police report notes a second vehicle as being involved.
“It was an accident, it wasn’t a hit-and-run,” Baraka said to reporters. “It’s under investigation and the state police will have that information [what happened] shortly…These things happen unfortunately and it’s a terrible tragic thing for us all, scared us half to death.”
The annual picnic brought in over 2,000 attendees.
The crash happened just over two months following a tragic fatal collision in which an elderly school bus driver missed an exit and made an illegal u-turn using an emergency cut-through on westbound I-80 in New Jersey. A dump truck subsequently slammed into the bus, killing a teacher and student on board, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
[Feature Photo: Pexels stock image]
