School Bus Driver, Students Caught In Violent Road Rage Incident In New Jersey
HOWELL TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – A road rage incident leads to violence in New Jersey, with a school bus driver as the target and kids caught in the middle.
"I drive a bus as if I have my own children on the bus," bus driver Kathy Anderson said.
Anderson has been behind the wheel of a school bus for decades.
"I started driving in 1986."
She thought she'd seen it all from angry drivers, until this happened.
"Why don't you slow down!"
"What? Slow down? You (expletive), you almost killed us… (expletive) idiot!" the attacker was caught on surveillance cameras saying while punching the bus.
"He started screaming and yelling but I didn't expect him to come up to the car window and punch the window out like that," Anderson said.
It was the passenger, not the driver, from a car coming in the opposite direction who unleashed his anger. Anderson claims the driver was speeding when she pulled out on to Ramtown-Greenville Road in Howell Township.
"He was moving along a little faster than he should have been and when I pulled out and he saw me the driver got nervous so he hit the brakes and he fishtailed a little bit," the bus driver alleged.
A few seconds later, the driver pulled over and the passenger began to scream.
When it was over, the children can be heard reacting.
"That was really mean. Yeah, that was mean!" students were recorded saying.
"They felt bad for me because when I came back to check on them, they all had their little pieces of paper out saying 'sorry Miss Kathy, I'm sorry you're sad.'"
Neighbors believe the road is a magnet for speeding drivers.
"My husband and I have witnessed bad things happening on this corner, people getting mad and two guys almost got in to a fight," Yulady Saluti said.
Police are still looking for the driver of the silver sedan, and more specifically, the passenger.
Anderson told CBS2's Valerie Castro there is a surveillance camera on the front of her bus that faces forward, but because she was turning, it didn't capture a clear shot of the car.
