8 Killed, 15 Injured as Bus Skids Off N.J. Highway, Flips

A bus taking 23 people from New York to Atlantic City, N.J., on a Christmas Eve gambling junket skidded off a highway and flipped over Thursday, killing eight passengers.

The tour bus plunged about 20 feet down a slushy embankment along the Garden State Parkway, landing on its side.

Fifteen people, including the driver, were injured. Their conditions ranged from stable to critical.

Rescuers had to cut seats apart to get at some of the victims.

“We tried to get to the people who were screaming the loudest,” said Joseph McKevitt, a member of a first-aid squad. “It didn’t look like a bus anymore. Seats were folded. Bodies were strewn every which way.”

Police said the weather may have been a factor.

About 2 inches of snow had fallen earlier, and snowplows had cleared two of three lanes, State Police Sgt. Al Della Fave said. It was not clear which lane the bus had been traveling in.

A witness saw the bus swerve before it left the outer lanes and overturn several times down the embankment, police said.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators because of the multiple deaths and because the agency is studying the crash-worthiness of buses.

“The information we gain here will be very important for that study,” agency spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said.

Several helicopters landed on the closed roadway to take some of the injured to hospitals. Others were evacuated by ambulance.

The accident shut down the southbound express lanes of the road for 6 1/2 hours on one of the busiest travel days of the year. The parkway is one of New Jersey’s major north-south roadways.

The driver, Valerie “Val” Viner, 52, was hospitalized in stable condition.

“I’m shocked,” said Eddie Ginzburg, part owner of Bruins Transportation of Brooklyn, in New York City, which owns the bus. “It never happened to us before. We’re a small company. My heart is just broken, you know.”

According to broadcast reports, Viner’s professional driver’s license was disqualified in March because he had more than nine violation points on his record, including being involved in an accident in which property was damaged and speeding. He took a recertification test and his license was reinstated, the reports said.

About 1,000 buses a day pour into Atlantic City, bringing gamblers to the city’s 12 casinos.

Bruins Transportation has an average safety record, said Maureen McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the New York state Transportation Department.