77-year-old driver in deadly N.J. crash had 14 license suspensions
The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission said Tuesday the 77-year-old man who was driving the school bus involved in last week's deadly crash has held a driver's license since 1975 and had a total of 14 license suspensions and eight speeding tickets, a careless driving ticket and a ticket for an improper turn in 2010, CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave reports. Only one license suspension was due to a moving violation, the N.J. MVC said.
A teacher and a student were killed last week when a dump truck collided with a bus filled with fifth graders on a field trip in New Jersey. Forty-three others were injured. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.
The driver was licensed to drive a school bus starting in 2013, the N.J. MVC said. That same year, he was cited for not wearing a seatbelt.
The driver is currently recovering in the hospital, his son told CBS New York. Officials said last week the driver made an illegal U-turn before the crash, but his son told CBS New York "he told me he didn't do it."
The violent force of the crash ripped the in two pieces and flipped it over. The bus did have seatbelts. Theo Ancevski, 11, was onboard during the collision.
"A lot of people were screaming. And they were hanging from their seatbelts ... A few people got out of the windows and they got out of the emergency exit on the top of the roof," Ancevski said.