Passengers speak out after metal debris crashes through windshield of NJ Transit bus; 3 hurt

LINDEN, New Jersey (WABC) -- Three people were seriously injured when metal debris hit the front windshield of a New Jersey Transit bus on Thursday afternoon.

It happened around 4 p.m. on the northbound New Jersey Turnpike in Linden.

Confusion and fear, exclusive video shows the moment after chaos broke out on a New Jersey Transit bus.

People were ushered off and a gaping hole was visible in the windshield.

"All of a sudden I heard this big bang, it sounded like an explosion," said Mary Ellen Ramirez, a passenger.

Mary Ellen and Gerardo Ramirez of Freehold were sitting in the back of the bus as it rode along the Turnpike headed to Port Authority when glass started flying.

"Along with the glass flying, there was a clanging noise, like something clanging, but no one knew what happened," Mary Ellen said.

Police say a huge piece of scrap metal dislodged from a truck changing lanes and crashed right into the windshield. It hit a man sitting in the front. The bus stopped and people immediately went to his aid.

"He didn't speak English, and so they were asking for an interpreter, someone who spoke English and Spanish, so I volunteered my husband," Mary Ellen said.

"He said, 'I feel very headache and like pass out,'" Gerardo said.

The man was bleeding with a gash to his head. A woman with him on the bus complained of headaches, and the flying glass got into a woman's eye.

Fortunately everyone was taken to the hospital having suffered only minor injuries.

Everyone else was transferred to another bus and got to the Port Authority safely.