East Brook Middle School student in NJ bus crash: 'A lot of people were screaming'

Children screamed as the bus toppled onto a metal railing and made a scraping sound before coming to rest on its side, with some students still dangling from their seat belts as others began to scramble to flee through windows and an emergency exit.

That firsthand account was given by an 11-year-old Paramus middle school student who was on board during the terrifying fatal crash on Route 80 in Mount Olive that took the life of a teacher and a classmate.

"People were screaming and they were like hanging from their seat belts," said Theo Ancevski, who gave the interview with his father at his side after being released from Morristown Medical Center on Thursday afternoon.

The bus was carrying fifth-graders from East Brook Middle School to Waterloo Village on a field trip when, authorities said, it was involved in an accident with a dump truck.

The teacher who died was identified by a family member Thursday night as Jennifer Marie Williamson, a veteran teacher of more than 20 years, according to state records.

She was a fifth-grade teacher, according to the East Brook school website.

Family members gathered Thursday night at her home, where a man who said he was her nephew confirmed her death.

Theo said he knew something was wrong when he heard a sound from the back of the bus.

"Something with one of the trucks behind us got hit as we toppled over," he said.

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His father, Pavle Ancevski, said he was working in New York when he got the call about the accident.

"I'm stressed," he said. "It was like a nightmare" to get to the hospital from the city. He added that he is thankful that his son was not hurt.

"We're thankful to God that everything was OK," the father said. "I hope the other kids are OK, because we have no information about them. A couple of kids we saw" at the hospital "were good, but it's tough for every family."

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Theo said he heard "a scraping sound" as the bus toppled over on its left side, crushing a metal railing in the highway median.

"So then a few people got out of the windows," Theo said. "And they got out of the emergency exit," which is on the roof.

He said he escaped through the emergency exit.

The bus ended up lying on its side, the front end torn off from the impact of the crash.

A dump truck that apparently was involved in the accident suffered heavy front-end damage.

Authorities said the crash occurred in the area of mile marker 25 on the westbound lanes of Route 80. They declined to provide the number of victims or their identities, saying names were being withheld pending notification of their next of kin. They said others injured in the crash were transported to multiple local hospitals.

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Parents who arrived at the school board's offices Thursday hugged one another, and East Brook Middle School students cried as they left the building after class.

Two Paramus high school students said they went to the middle school during their lunch period because they were shaken by news of the accident and they have siblings enrolled at the school.

Denise Yildirim, 16, said her "heart dropped" and she "couldn't breathe" when she saw a photo of the bus accident posted online.

Gisely Cabrera, the parent of an eighth-grader, went to the middle school saying that the accident was "scary. I don't know what’s happening, but I knew I needed to be here.”

Paramus Councilwoman Jeanne Weber said she was watching the news about the crash and was “absolutely sick.”

“My thoughts and prayers are with the children and their families,” she said.