Submitted by New Jersey Bus Accident Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark.
A woman who became trapped under an NJ Transit bus at Van Houten Street and College Boulevard in Paterson early Wednesday morning was removed and transported to the hospital, according to police.
She suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to Jerry Speziale, the city’s police director. The woman, who was not identified, was in “extreme pain” but in “good spirits,” according to Speziale.
“The fire and police departments’ expeditious response was exemplary,” Speziale said, noting that the patrol division was on the scene within minutes of the accident and the Fire Department and traffic division followed soon after. “They did a tremendous job of calming her down and removing her from underneath the bus.”
Members of the Paterson Police Department on the scene where a woman was hit by an NJ Transit bus on Wednesday morning. (Photo: Amy Newman/NorthJersey.com)
Speziale said he was unsure how the accident happened but it appeared that the woman, who is in her late 20s or early 30s, was a pedestrian. She was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center.
NJ Transit senior information officer Jim Smith said that at 8:28 a.m., a bus on the 161 line, operating from the Port Authority Bus Terminal to the Paterson Broadway Bus Terminal, struck a female pedestrian at the intersection of Van Houten and Main streets in Paterson.
An NJ Transit bus driver, believed to have been driving the bus that hit a woman on the corner of Van Houten Street and College Boulevard on Wednesday, speaks with a member of the Paterson Police Department. (Photo: Amy Newman/NorthJersey.com)
Initial reports, according to Smith, indicate the bus was making a left turn onto Van Houten Street from Main Street while the pedestrian was walking north on the sidewalk on Main and “walked into the rear of the bus while on her cellphone.”
The woman was knocked down with her left leg under the rear driver’s side of the bus. She suffered a leg injury but was alert and conscious, Smith said.