Fatal crash video shows bus crossing 3 lanes
Driver faces homicide charges in two deaths from the May wreck.
NEWARK, N.J. — Video of a New Jersey school bus crash that killed a teacher and student and injured dozens of others last spring shows the driver veering across three lanes of traffic on Interstate 80.
The video from the May 17 crash shows the bus enter the highway and immediately cross three lanes, apparently heading for a spot where authorized vehicles such as police cars can make a U-turn.
The bus was broadsided by a dump truck and broke apart.
Driver Hudy Muldrow is charged with vehicular homicide. The 77-year-old has denied he was trying to make an illegal U-turn.
Ten-year-old Miranda Vargas and 51-year-old teacher Jennifer Williamson were killed, and more than 40 others were injured, some seriously.
Media company Gannett filed a lawsuit to obtain the video.
Muldrow was driving one of three buses taking fifth-graders on a field trip from a middle school in Paramus, about 15 miles northwest of New York City.
According to an affidavit filed by New Jersey state police, Muldrow missed a turn for the Waterloo Village historic site and tried to make an illegal Uturn on the interstate, crossing three lanes toward a break in the median.
The crash spurred legislative efforts to require buses to have three-point seat belts and to require quicker notification to school districts when their bus drivers commit moving violations.
Muldrow had his license suspended 14 times, most recently last December. Some were for administrative reasons such as failure to pay parking tickets, but Muldrow also had eight speeding violations between 1975 and 2001, according to state records.