When Safety Fails: Demanding Accountability From NJ Transit and Coach USA
Every year, families across New Jersey face unimaginable tragedy after fatal and life-altering bus-related incidents. Many people do not realize how frequently pedestrians and passengers are harmed in collisions involving major transit operators like NJ Transit and Coach USA.
Two independent projects, a public-interest site run by Soullity Journalists and another memorial platform known as Justice For All, have worked to bring visibility to these tragedies. They highlight the human stories behind the statistics: parents, students, grandparents, workers, and neighbors whose lives were cut short or permanently changed.
These platforms exist because many families feel their voices have been pushed aside. Their message is clear: public transportation safety is not just a policy issue, it’s a matter of life and death.
A Fight Over Accountability
According to advocates and several families involved, transit companies and their legal teams are attempting to expand immunity protections that could limit the ability of injured survivors or grieving families to seek justice in court. Some cases have even reached discussions involving the U.S. Supreme Court, underscoring how significant these legal questions have become.
Critics argue that expanding immunity would effectively protect the system, not the public. They fear it will:
Reduce accountability for negligent or unsafe driving
Make it harder for victims to pursue compensation
Encourage a culture where preventable tragedies are dismissed as “accidents”
Transit agencies frequently emphasize safety in their mission statements, but families affected by these crashes say the reality on the ground tells a different story.
When Profit Overshadows Protection
Advocates have raised concerns about hiring practices, training standards, and the way some drivers are screened and supervised. They argue that:
Training must be rigorous, consistent, and language-appropriate
Drivers must be fully qualified to understand safety protocols
Background checks must be meaningful
Transit companies must invest in ongoing training, monitoring, and safety upgrades
Injured victims and families deserve transparency and honesty
When companies cut corners or downplay risks, the cost is paid not by executives, but by pedestrians, riders, and families who lose someone forever.
The Human Toll
Behind every incident is a life erased or a survivor who must live with permanent injuries, crushed limbs, traumatic brain injuries, paralysis, and the lifelong physical and emotional scars that follow. Families mourn for decades. Some never recover from the heartbreak.
Advocates say this is why accountability matters. Not to punish, but to prevent. A bus is a powerful machine, and when operated without proper training, oversight, or judgment, it can become deadly.
For the families who have suffered unimaginable loss, their message is simple:
No one should die simply trying to cross a street, go to school, or ride public transit.
A Call to New Jersey’s Leadership
From past administrations to the approaching 2026 gubernatorial race, New Jersey’s leaders will face critical decisions about oversight, justice, and safety reform. Community members, journalists, and grieving families are watching closely.
The question is no longer whether change is needed, but whether state leaders will choose transparency, accountability, and public safety, or continue the pattern of minimizing these tragedies.
What Must Change
Advocacy groups are calling for:
Stronger bus-driver training programs
Clear monitoring and disciplinary policies
Independent investigations of fatal crashes
Full transparency with crash data
A legal system that supports, not silences, victims
Real consequences when negligence occurs
Bus driver/operator pay their own attorney fees
Bus driver spend time in jail for vehicular homicide
Psychological evaluation
Because in the end, lives are worth more than profit. Public transportation should protect the public, not endanger it.
Honoring the Lives Lost
Websites like Soullity Journalists and the memorial project Justice For All exist because too many people feel forgotten by the system that failed them. They document stories that should never be erased or minimized.
Their work asks us to remember these victims not as statistics, but as human beings with dreams, families, and futures taken too soon.
These are the victims names, towns the death occurred and counties.
Justice for NJ Transit and Coach USA Victims
Alvin Maracallo 10-year-old, August 4, 2019, Bergenfield on West Church Street by bus driver Cynthia Watkins, NJ Transit bus driver, (Bergen County)
Mercedes Perez, 59-year-old became disabled on October 9, 2008, Market Street, Cianci Paterson, NJ Transit bus driver, (Passaic County)
Seres Arpad 63-year-old was injured on December 2, 2014, at m intersection near Wayne Transit Center, NJ Transit bus driver, (Passaic County)
Joseph Currier 49-year-old, December 23, 2012, bus driver Catherine Collier, NJ Transit bus driver, (Passaic County)
Dan Hanegby 36-year-old, Coach USA Bus, bus driver Dave Lewis 53-year-old (NJ Transit) Coach USA bus driver Manhattan, (New York)
Ramon Castillo 61-year-old, September 27, 2011, (Wayne, NJ), (Passaic County)
Raul E. Mediana 72-year-old, June 15, 2012, Newark, NJ,
(Essex County)
Mario RoselleGarcia 39-year-old, July 14, 2012, (Belleville, NJ), (Essex County)
Keith Elliot 45-year-old December 26, 2019, NJ Transit bus driver (Toms River),
(Ocean County)
Tevin Campbell 18-year- May 27, 2014, NJ Transit bus driver (Pleasantville), (Atlantic County)
Kira Strider-14-year-old May 27, 2014, NJ Transit bus driver (Pleasantville), (Atlantic County)
pm, NJ Transit bus driver, South Broadway, and Royden Streets, (Camden County)
Aditya Tejaswi, 17, EDISON, N.J, February 26, 2020, NJ Transit train engineer, (Middlesex County)
Christoph Szotak, July 31, 2020, killed by an NJ Transit train engineer, Morristown, NJ (Morris County)
Alfred Wood 63-year-old, November 6, 2019, NJ Transit train engineer/Amtrak, Middletown, NJ (Monmouth County)
Nicholas Bischoff, 17-years-old, Glen Rock, NJ Transit train engineer, (Bergen County)
Gregory Brantley 31-years-old, Morris & Essex line, NJ Transit train engineer (Morris County)
John Hagans 51-years-old, Bayonne, NJ, was run over by an NJ Transit bus driver, (Hudson County)
Edison Boy 16-years-old, A St. Joe's Student, Killed By NJ Transit Train (Middlesex County)
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