A school bus taking students from Paramus, New Jersey to a field trip collided with a dump truck on on Route 80 on May 17, leaving 2 dead and 43 injured.

It was one of three buses taking East Brook Middle School’s 5th grade students to Waterloo Village, an abandoned Lenape Village, on May 17, when the bus driver missed the exit and tried to use a police only road to turn around. A truck crashed into it since it was not expecting the illegal turn and was unable to stop. The crash caused the bus to turn on its side and the bottom portion of the bus to detach.

One student, Miranda Vargas, and one teacher, Jennifer Williamson, died. The rest of the passengers were injured, some in critical condition, and transferred to hospitals.

“I was so upset when I heard about it. I can’t believe a bus driver would do that,” said junior Sophia Esheileh.

Students escaped through widows, the roof emergency exit, and the back emergency door. A student on the bus named Theo Ancevski described some students as “hanging from their seat belts”. Luckily, he was only in the hospital to treat cuts and scrapes and was quickly released.

The bus driver had a horrible driving history, with 14 license suspensions, one of which was a commercial license suspension.

To deal with the loss of the student and teacher, the school will be providing grief counselors. The bus driver was being tried for the deaths, but was released from jail on May 30 and told not to drive.