Officials ID Bus Driver Killed in Fiery Colts Neck Crash

COLTS NECK, NJ — A Woodbridge woman has been identified by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office as the school bus driver killed in a fiery head-on collision Tuesday between a small school bus and an SUV in Colts Neck.

Lorraine Filozof, 62, of the Avenel section of Woodbridge, died at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, as a result of the crash on Phalanx Road on the Colts Neck-Middletown border, said Charles Webster, spokesman for the prosecutor's office.

Filozof, a driver for Helfrich & Sons of Keansburg, was westbound on Phalanx Road when the 16-passenger school bus collided head-on shortly before 2:30 p.m. with a 2004 Dodge Durango driven by a 77-year-old Colts Neck man, Webster said.

The investigation is ongoing, but it appears the school bus was properly within its lane of travel when it was struck by the Durango, Webster said. The bus caught fire upon impact, he said.

Filozof, a 61-year-old man from Hazlet who is a school bus aide and a juvenile student from Manalapan were on the bus at the time of the collision, Webster said, and all three were taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center along with the driver of the Durango, Webster said.

The school bus aide and student were treated for non-life threatening injuries and later released, Webster said, while the driver of the Durango was held overnight for observation.

The Monmouth County Serious Collision Analysis Response Team is conducting the investigation with assistance from the Colts Neck and Middletown police departments, he said. Colts Neck and Middletown first aid squads and MONOC paramedics provided medical assistance, he said.

Image via Shutterstock