Video shows deadly bus crash in Newark that killed driver, grandmother
NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- Eyewitness News has obtained video showing a deadly New Jersey Transit bus crash in Newark that claimed claimed the lives of a driver and a passenger who was on her way to work.
The incident happened on August 19, when one bus T-boned the other, likely at high speed, around 6 a.m. at North Broad Street and Raymond Boulevard.
Watch the video here:
One of the vehicles was broken nearly in half, and bus driver Joseph Barthelus was pronounced dead at the scene. His Route 59 bus was empty, but he crashed into a Route 13 bus with 17 passengers on board. One of those passengers, 49-year-old Jesy Garcia, of Newark, was rushed to the hospital but died several hours later. The grandmother of three was on her way to her job at the time.
"She was a hard worker, got up every day, six days a week to work," family friend Jasmina Bosnjakovic said. "She got up at 5 a.m. every single day to go make an honest living and to come home and live the simple life."
Eighteen people were injured, six critically.
PHOTO: Two buses collide in Newark, New Jersey
Many passengers were entangled in twisted metal seats covered in shards of glass as the force of the crash tipped the occupied bus at a 30-degree angle as it came to rest on a median. Some were trapped and needed to be rescued, and firefighters could be seen pulling passengers through a side window and loading them onto waiting stretchers and into ambulances.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the cause of the accident remains under investigation.
