US News

TEEN HURT IN BUS ACCIDENT ON ICY GARDEN STATE P’KWY

A bus heading for an Atlantic City casino collided with several cars on the ice-slicked Garden State Parkway late last night, leaving a 13-year-old boy in critical condition.

The accident in Dover, N.J., shut down the southbound side of the parkway from Exit 81 to 82.

State police said the injured boy was in one of the cars involved in the pileup. He was taken to Jersey Shore Medical Center.

They said no passengers on the bus were hurt, and the vehicle continued on its way to Atlantic City.

The accident was the fourth involving a casino-bound bus in the past two weeks. Eight people died and 14 were hurt in a Christmas Eve crash on the Parkway.

The crash was one of many on ice-slicked New Jersey roads last night, including nearly a dozen on the Parkway alone.

Accidents also occurred on the FDR drive, the West Side Highway, the Grand Central Parkway and the Lond Island Expressway as freezing rain and sleet turned the roads into sheets of ice.

The freezing rain was supposed to change to all rain in the morning, stopping by afternoon.

“We’re looking for hazardous conditions, slippery roads, sidewalks – that kind of thing,” said Kipp Hogan of the National Weather Service.

As temperatures stayed icy, the homeless flocked to city shelters, arriving before dawn to be sure to get a bed.

The Sanitation Department – which spread a mere 18 tons of rock salt during the dusting on Christmas Eve – was ready for the worst yesterday with 353 salt-spreaders, 380 snowplows, 900 people on hand and 200,000 tons of rock salt.