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It was supposed to take middle schoolers on a field trip, but it arrived early and a group of Ridgefield Park High School students from Little Ferry hopped on, thinking it was their morning ride across the Hackensack River. Once they hit the Turnpike, the kids tried telling the driver their school was back behind them. She apparently didn’t understand — and kept going.
“One of the kids said, ‘Where are you going?’ ” Little Ferry Superintendent Frank Scarafile told a reporter for the Record newspaper. “The bus driver said, ‘We’re going to Great Adventure’. ”
About 110 miles from school!
Administrators are unsure, but there might may have been a language barrier among the students and the driver. The super told The Record he didn’t know the driver’s name or native tongue.
Like most conscientious parents, the Little Ferry adults gave their kids cellphones, and the calls immediately came in — like a radio contest or a ticket buy.
Countless calls where redirected straight to Scarafile, who got answers quick, allaying fears of parents and children alike, while getting the wrongheaded bus driver turned around.
For their troubles, the students got to see landmarks transformed into icons by “The Sopranos”: The dinosaur-like Route 1 “Skway”; an EZ-Pass lane at 16W that once took coins; Newark Airport, of course. Over on the right you can see the dilapidated Hdrox building; up ahead on our left, the Goethels Bridge.
Pointing out those points of interest depends on whether the driver spoke any English, which some students said she didn’t.
The driver finally heeded the students’ complaints by turning around at another Jersey landmark: IKEA, off the Turnpike. Headed north on the Pike, she was met by New Jersey State Troopers.
A Ridgefield Park officer got on the bus and rode back to the high school with the kids, the Record reports.
The younsters were late for class, but at least they brought some talking points — including common sense, New Jersey geography and maybe even immigration standards.
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