What to Know
- A serious road accident in New Jersey Thursday morning left a utility pole laying on top of a bus and a crushed car behind it
- According to mayor of Hillside, New Jersey, the bus was transporting 11 senior citizens, 2 of whom have serious injuries due to the crash
- The accident happened in an industrial area of Hillside, just off a flood-prone stretch of Route 22; it's not clear if weather was a factor
A road accident in New Jersey Thursday morning left two senior citizens with serious injuries, a utility pole laying on top of a mini-bus and a crushed car behind it.
The accident happened in an industrial area of Hillside, just off a stretch of Route 22 that routinely floods in bad weather.
Two vehicles were involved in the incident -- a silver Hyundai and the township's Senior Citizen Transportation bus.
According to the township's mayor, Dahlia O. Vertreese, two women have serious injuries -- one is 96 years old, the other is in her mid-70s.
According to Vertreese, 11 senior citizens were on the township-run bus that was bringing them back home from a grocery-shopping trip to Shoprite. They were a block away from the Hillside Senior Center drop-off location when a woman driving the Hyundai missed a stop sign and hit the tail end of the bus, the mayor said, adding that the impact caused the bus to careen into the power pole.
Photos show the utility pole cracked across the hood of the bus, with live electrical wires draped all over it.
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The power company arrived at the scene. The mayor said that when the pole fell the transformer was not damaged and no power outages were reported.
The damaged car stood behind the bus, its front end almost totally crushed. The driver was not injured, Vertreese said.
The interstection and surrounding streets are closed as police continue their investigation and the downed pole is fixed. It is unknown when the scene will be cleared.
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