Fatal Bus Accident, Trenton, NJ 06/01/09

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TRENTON — A city man was struck, dragged and killed by a 50,700-pound bus yesterday morning as he was crossing Market Street just feet west of the South Broad Street intersection.

“I heard a man yelling, ‘Stop the bus! Stop! Stop the bus! Stop! Stop!’” said Kimba Weekes, who stayed on the scene to talk to police about what he saw and heard.

“I never heard no ‘Ouch!’ or screaming,” he said. “Then the man who stopped the bus left. This is terrible.”

Witnesses said the victim had bent down to pick up some change he dropped on the street and “the bus whacked him.”

The unfortunate retiree, Monserrate Cruz, 69, of Quinton Avenue, Trenton, was pinned underneath the 2002 57-passenger bus, stuck between the double right rear tires, said Detective Sgt. Pedro Medina, TPD spokesman. The tragedy occurred at 11:13 a.m.

The victim’s feet, still wearing white sneakers, could be seen protruding from between the huge bus tires. His body looked like a motionless dark shadow under the bus.

Father Dennis Apoldite, of the Sacred Heart Church, tried to give Mr. Cruz last rites but was unable to reach him under the bus, officials said.

Trenton Fire Department personnel worked for nearly two hours in conjunction with Hawks Towing to lift the massive bus off the ground high enough to extricate Mr. Cruz. Medina said the his legs were “twisted” but the body was intact.

Rescuers were concerned that since the bus stopped facing downhill, if it was moved, it could shift and trap someone else, said Battalion Chief Henry Gliottone.

“We sized up the situation and used hydraulic air bags to lift the bus. It was only a matter of six to eight inches so we could get him out,” Gliottone said.

“He was under the bus and he was not caught. It was a slow and time-consuming process.”

Mr. Cruz was pronounced dead at the scene by the medical examiner, the chief said. His body was recovered by Mercer Medical Death Investigator Harvey Gibel and taken to the county morgue for an autopsy.

The driver, identified as John J. Matzer, 55, from Riverside in Burlington County, looked ashen as he talked to investigators.

Matzer was taken to Capital Health’s Fuld Campus, where he voluntarily submitted samples of his blood for drug and alcohol testing, Medina said.

“This is an ongoing investigation, and no criminal charges are expected to be filed,” Medina said, “but it is likely that he (Matzer) will be charged with motor vehicle offenses.”

The accident happened as the bus was heading north on South Broad Street and turning left onto Market Street.

The bus, owned by the Stout Bus Co. of Ewing Township, is contracted by Mercer County to take state and county workers to and from the parking lot at the Sovereign Bank Arena to the civil and criminal courthouses on South Broad.

It was empty at the time of the accident, Medina said. The bus was impounded and towed to Hawks, where it will undergo a mechanical safety inspection by the New Jersey State Police commercial carrier inspections unit.

Sheriff’s officers and Trenton police closed down the intersection to all motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic until 1 p.m.

Man picks up change, gets crushed by bus

From the Trentonian: http://www.trentonian.com