More Than A Dozen Injured When School Bus Collides With SUV In Irvington, NJ

Submitted by New Jersey School Bus Crash Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark

IRVINGTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – More than a dozen people, including children, were treated when a school bus collided with an SUV and then slammed into a building in Irvington Thursday morning.

The accident took place around 8:15 a.m. at the intersection of Springfield Avenue and Sanford Avenue.

The bus driver said she “experienced a total brake failure” and lost control of the bus, slamming into a Toyota Rav 4 that was heading east on Springfield Avenue, Irvington police said.

The Rav 4 then hit a light pole as the bus crashed into the side of Home Liquors on Springfield Avenue, police said.

Surveillance video from a nearby bodega shows the bus sailing through the intersection before striking the building. People can be seen running and scrambling to help the children on board.

“I didn’t speak to her, she just came out of the bus and she was saying, ‘My brakes went off on me,’” Marie Shanouda, a worker at the bodega who called 911, told CBS2’s Sonia Rincon. “I told her, ‘It’s OK. It’s going to be fine.’”

Police said there were 11 children between the ages of 3 and 11 and two adults, including the driver, on the bus at the time of the crash.

Nine of those children were on their way to Mount Carmel Guild Academy in West Orange, police said. Three of the kids are special needs. The other two are the bus driver’s children, police said.

They were all taken to area hospitals, but police said according to first responders, none of the injuries seemed to be life-threatening. The most serious injury appeared to be a possible fractured leg. Both adults on the bus also suffered minor injuries.

Police said the bus is operated by “Horizon Link School, LLC.”

Officials said the local buildings department will check out the stability of the store that was hit by the bus.

Originally published here by New York CBS Local.