MIDDLETOWN – Police are still looking for the driver of a tractor-trailer who left the scene of an accident in which a school bus driver sustained serious injuries.
According to Deputy Chief Stephen Dollinger, the driver of the tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of Route 35 just south of New Monmouth Road, left the scene of the Oct. 23 accident before police arrived,
The driver, who has been identified by police, was not inside the vehicle at the time of the crash, having left the scene on foot prior to police arrival.
Police have obtained video footage of the driver from a local store and are working with the trucking company to locate him, Dollinger said.
According to Dollinger, the driver, Beverly Cerbone, from the Port Monmouth section of the township, was driving south on Route 35 shortly before 7 a.m. on Oct. 23 when she struck the tractor-trailer that was parked on the shoulder of the road just south of New Monmouth Road.
No students were on the bus at the time of the accident, Dollinger said.
Dollinger confirmed that Cerbone was on her way to Rumson at the time of the accident.
Cerbone was admitted to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune with non-life threatening injures.
Cerbone had not yet been released from Jersey Shore on Oct. 27, Dollinger said.
Dollinger could not confirm which school district the driver is employed by, but said the bus is part of the fleet for Keansburg-based bus company R. Helfrich & Son Corp.
Posted on the Middletown Township School District website Oct. 23 was a statement about the incident: “The bus accident this morning on Route 35 did not involve any students. The bus was not a Middletown schools run and no students were aboard.”
Middletown Police are requesting anyone who may have witnessed the accident to contact the Traffic Bureau at 732-615-2045.
The New Jersey State Police, the Leonardo and Middletown First Aid Squads, the Old Village and Middletown Fire companies, and MONOC paramedics assisted at the scene.