Passenger critical, driver, two others injured when tire slams through bus windshield

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 49-year-old New York man was in critical condition at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson after a tire and rim came off a car and slammed through the windshield of a commuter bus on the border of Ramsey and Upper Saddle River on Route 17 this morning.

Jerry DeMarco

05/05/2014 2:28 p.m.

The driver and two other passengers sustained injuries not as severe in the 7:35 a.m. accident, Ramsey Police Chief Bryan Gurney said this afternoon.

STORY / PHOTOS: Boyd A. Loving

A four-door Lexus heading north lost the front driver’s wheel, which bounced over the center divider and into the southbound Pine Hills Trailways bus near Mountainview Avenue in Upper Saddle River, Gurney said.

The bus driver brought the Manhattan-bound bus to a safe stop near the Lake Street exit in Ramsey. The Lexus driver, an Oakland woman, remained with her car. No summonses were issued, Gurney said.

Responding were the Upper Saddle River Police, Ramsey and Allendale ambulance corps, Ramsey Rescue and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Fatal Accident Investigation Unit.

Southbound backups extended for miles. Rubbernecking thickened traffic on the northbound side.

PHOTO: Kim Rowland Rupp

STORY / PHOTOS: Boyd A. Loving

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