Eyewitness To Fatal NJ Turnpike Megabus Crash Recounts 'Nightmare'

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A passerby who was one of the first to arrive at a double-decker bus crash on the New Jersey Turnpike in Woodbridge Tuesday night said he will never forget the horror he witnessed at the scene of the crash, which has now killed two people, both female passengers.

"It was like an apocalypse, a nightmare," said Gary Lee Fortner, a 30-year-old Atlanta resident who ran into the overturned bus and helped pull people out. "There was smoke all around, people walking around bleeding, with their arms broken, blood everywhere. It was something I will never be able to get out of my mind."

Related: Death Toll Rises To 2 In NJ Turnpike Megabus Crash

At 6:53 p.m. Tuesday, the double-decker Megabus collided with a Ford F-150 pickup truck and veered off the Turnpike southbound, said NJ State Police. The bus was in the far left lane and the bus driver lost control and collided with the truck, which was in the center lane, said police.

The bus went off the road near the entrance ramp to the Thomas Edison service area in Woodbridge, and overturned on its side.

The two women killed have been identified as passenger Cheryl Johnson, 59, of the Bronx, who was pronounced deceased on the scene. Passenger Cecilia Kiyanitza, 66, of Woodbury, NJ was airlifted to an area hospital where she was later pronounced deceased.

Three people sustained serious injuries: The bus driver, a 56-year-old man from Westville, N.J. and two passengers. Additionally, 14 passengers sustained non-life-threatening injuries; four passengers sustained no injuries, said State Police.

The bus was occupied by the driver and 22 passengers, said State Police, but MegaBus said the bus had 19 people onboard total, including the driver.

The double-decker Megabus was en route to Philadelphia when it crashed, said a spokesman for Megabus. The bus had departed from 34th Street in New York City.

Based on the preliminary investigation, the bus driver lost directional control of the bus in the area of milepost 93.2 and struck the Ford, said State Police. After the impact, the bus went off the road to the right, struck the guardrail, and overturned onto the Thomas Edison service area entrance ramp.

Fortner describes the horror he witnessed:

"I had pulled into the (Thomas Edison) service area. I was just getting back in my car when I heard this noise you can't really describe: It's metal and you know it's a car wreck, but it's on a different level," said Fortner.

Fortner was a couple hundred feet away from where the crash occurred. He ran to the crash site.

"Other people had pulled off the Turnpike and they were running to the overturned bus, as well. When I turned the corner, it's not really anything you want to see, but I realized it was a double-decker bus on its side."

According to Fortner, the bus never actually made it to the off-ramp. It was still on the side of the road along the Turnpike south, but it had gone through the guardrail. The guardrail pierced the front glass window of the bus and had entered five to six feet into the bus, he said.

Fortner said the driver was unconscious and everyone else was trying to get out of the bus or screaming for help, as they were trapped. He said it appeared like the passengers on the top level of the bus had suffered the most severe injuries.

"I and other people just ran into the bus and started pulling people out. We spent the next 45 minutes pulling people out of the bus. What we saw, I can't even say. People had been cut to the bone; there were ligaments and bones showing. One woman, I could see her whole arm had been cut to the bone. People were covered in blood."

"One elderly man, it's hard to say, but he (suffered significant head trauma). He was conscious and we helped him off the bus, but he had no idea what was going on. He kept asking me what had happened. I will never get it out of my mind."

Two young women in their 20s were trapped under seats in the back of the bus; Fortner said he and the others heard them screaming for help but they had to be pulled out by State Police and Woodbridge firefighters using the Jaws of Life.

"This was the largest incident I've ever responded to, just in terms of the volume of people, and I've responded to a lot of accidents on the Turnpike," said Evan Douglas, captain at the Port Reading Fire Department, and who responded to the crash site Tuesday night. "There were significant trauma injuries in the bus."

Fortner said he and others "just pulled out as many people as we could."

"All the passengers told us they had been asleep. They were just asleep headed to Philly and then boom, your whole life changes in an instant," he said.

Some of the injured and bleeding were walking around the bus in a daze, and Fortner said he and others tried to get them water and sit with them. Other people were taking off their shirts and wrapping them around the wounded to control the bleeding until EMTs got there. Many people were uncontrollably crying, he said.

"I also just sat with people who were in a daze and they just wanted to talk to someone," he said. "It wasn't just me who helped at all. It was me and every single other person who pulled off the highway and ran to help last night."

NJ State Police responded, as did firefighters from Port Reading, Fords, Woodbridge and Perth Amboy.

Original Patch report: NJ Turnpike Bus Crash: 1 Dead, Nearly 2 Dozen Hurt In Tuesday Crash