MOUNT OLIVE, N.J. (AP) — Before a New Jersey school bus collided last week with a dump truck leaving a fifth-grader and a teacher dead, the bus merged onto an interstate and then turned sharply toward a U-turn area, according to a new video.
NJ.com reported the department of transportation video its reporter viewed shows the bus merging from Route 206 onto Interstate 80 before turning at a nearly perpendicular angle toward a crossover area. Police use the area for turnarounds but civilian turns are not allowed.
State police previously said the bus was merging from 206 onto the interstate on its way to a historic village for a field trip.
The crash, which sheared the bus from its wheelbase and crushed the dump truck’s front end, left 10-year-old Miranda Vargas and teacher Jennifer Williamson dead. More than 40 others were hurt.
Police declined to comment on the video, which has not been publicly released. Morris County prosecutors, who are leading the investigation, did not immediately respond to questions about it.
The bus driver’s son, Hudy Muldrow Jr. said his father, Hudy Muldrow Sr., told him he did not make a U-turn.
“I said, ‘Dad, you know, I’m hearing stories that you made an illegal U-turn,’ and as far as that I didn’t get no answer,” Muldrow Jr. told CBS. He later added: “He told me he didn’t do it.”