Paramus Will Continue To Support East Brook Students This Year

PARAMUS, NJ — East Brook Middle School students will continue to receive support this academic year, months after a student and teacher were killed in a horrific school bus crash on a field trip in May.

The Board of Education has provided students involved in the crash with support throughout the end of the previous academic year and in the summer to ensure they completed the fifth grade.

Officials will continue to make resources available to students as they and staff transition to the new school year, which begins Thursday.

"The start of the school year is always an exciting time," said Superintendent Michele Robinson. "Students across the district and certainly at East Brook are looking forward to seeing their friends and starting the new school year."

East Brook Middle School teacher Jennifer Williamson-Kennedy and 10-year-old Miranda Vargas died in the May 17 crash. There were 38 students on the bus and seven adults from Paramus when the bus collided with a dump truck on Route 80. All of them were injured, some critically.

The fifth-graders, teachers, and chaperones were on their way to Waterloo Village, which is a short distance from where the crash occurred. Two other buses of fifth-graders were on the field trip as well, but they returned to East Brook Middle School sometime later, authorities said.

The crash prompted a change in state law requiring three-point lap and shoulder seat belts on certain school buses be upgraded following the crash. The law applied to school buses made on or 180 days after Aug. 25.

"We will never know if a three-point belt would have saved the lives of Miranda Vargas and Jennifer Williamson, or whether they would have prevented serious injury to so many others on May 17," Governor Phil Murphy said when he signed the legislation. "Every child and every educator and adult chaperone deserves our best effort to protect their safety and the best possible chance of emerging unharmed in the unfortunate event of a school bus accident."

Several days after the bus crash, the National Transportation Safety Board released recommendations that all states require full three-point seat belts. Those new guidelines were issued as the result of two deadly bus crashes in November 2016.

Paramus student on board the bus when it crashed said he did not think lap belts alone were enough.

"Paramus, as good as it is, I think we need more safety precautions, like a three-point seat belt," Peter Caminiti III said at a Paramus Board of Education meeting following the crash.

The bus driver, Hudy Muldrow Sr., 77, of Jersey City, was charged with death by auto following an investigation of the crash by authorities.

Officials say Muldrow caused the horrific crash when he cut the school bus across three lanes of Route 80 traffic in an attempt to reach an official-use-only turn-around point in the median. Through a lawyer, Muldrow has maintained his innocence.

Read More Patch Reporting

• Bus Driver In Fatal NJ Crash Ordered To Stay In Jail (Video)
• Murphy Signs School Bus Seat Belt Legislation Into Law
• School Bus Driver In Fatal NJ Crash Is Innocent, Lawyer Says
• Paramus Officials Unaware Of Bus Driver's Record: Superintendent
• Why Was Elderly Man With 14 Suspensions Driving Doomed NJ Bus?
• Hundreds Mourn Student,Teacher Killed In Paramus School Bus Crash
• 2 Killed, 43 Injured In Rt. 80 School Bus Crash

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a fatal Paramus school bus crash on Interstate 80 in Mount Olive Thursday morning. (By Avi Gibli, used with permission)