While a daughter's friend dialed 911, Williams got out and found the driver walking toward the back of the Bergen Academies bus -- and more than a dozen students still aboard.
"He was yelling in Spanish on his cellphone," Williams said. "The back of the bus was engulfed in smoke.
"I got on the bus and asked the kids what was going on. They said: 'We don't know. It smells like gasoline.'
"I got them off the bus and to the side of the road," Williams said. "Then the police came."
The exhaust system was to blame for the 4:45 p.m. breakdown. There was no fire, she said.
"That's a relief," Williams said. "After what's been happening with school buses, we're all alert and watching right now."
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