An out-of-service NJ Transit bus rolled down a steep hill on Glenwood Road in Ridgewood and came within a guardrail and a cluster of boulders of tumbling over a rocky embankment above the Ho-Ho-Kus train station. The driver, who was alone on board, climbed out through an emergency window before firefighters arrived and was not reported injured.
The incident unfolded Friday afternoon, according to Daily Voice, which reported that a steel guardrail and large boulders are what ultimately kept the bus from going over the edge. A separate account from NorthJersey.com described the bus as left perched over the train tracks after striking a guardrail, and that report likewise said no one was injured.
The scene drew a heavy multi-agency response. NJ Transit police, along with the agency's rail and bus operations personnel, responded alongside Ridgewood police, firefighters and EMS, and Ho-Ho-Kus police and firefighters, per the Daily Voice report. A heavy-duty tow truck was eventually needed to pull the bus free, and it was hauled off to NJ Transit's Oradell bus maintenance facility once crews had it secured.
Trains Halted as a Precaution
Because the bus came to rest so close to the tracks, NJ Transit temporarily suspended Bergen Line train service in both directions north of Ridgewood. The agency said it suspended service out of an abundance of caution while crews worked to remove the bus, the same report noted.
The disruption meant commuters on that stretch of the Bergen Line had to contend with halted service while the recovery effort played out near the Ho-Ho-Kus station. The bus itself had been out of service at the time it rolled down the hill, according to the outlet's reporting.
Not the First Bus Mishap for NJ Transit
The close call in Ridgewood comes amid other recent trouble for NJ Transit's bus fleet elsewhere in Bergen County. In a separate incident, an NJ Transit bus crashed into a home in Englewood, sending the driver to the hospital, according to transportation officials cited by CBS New York.
