Only one of the 15 people on the Community Coach-operated bus sustained an injury after the NJ Transit train hit the front of it near the Plauderville Avenue station just before 5 p.m., NJ Transit's Lisa Torbic said.
The injury wasn't considered life-threatening, she said, adding that none of the 100 or so people on the train reported an injury.
Bus riders told Daily Voice that the driver stopped midway over the first set of tracks as the gates came down.They said they yelled at her to back up but she couldn’t because there was a car directly behind the bus.
"Someone ran up and actually manually operated the door mechanism and people were able to get off the bus," one of them said.
The area around Midland Avenue and Outwater Lane was temporarily closed to traffic while NJ Transit detectives investigated.
Bergen Line train service was indefinitely suspended. NJ Transit dispatched buses to pick up the riders.
Train No. 66 left Middletown, N.Y., at 3:19 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Hoboken at 5:13 p.m.
Local police and EMS joined NJ Transit police at the scene.
Michael Sarao contributed to this account.
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