On the morning of Nov. 13, 2012, the body of a New Jersey man, 61, was discovered at a lot in Newark Liberty International Airport with tire tracks providing evidence of his cause of death. A bus driver who was arrested in April 2013 in connection with the accident pleaded guilty on July 1 to leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. The plea agreement removed a lesser included offense of endangering an injured victim, and the prosecution’s recommendation for sentencing, which would be finalized at a hearing on Sept. 9, was a 364-day stay in jail.
The bus driver, 48, denied that he struck the victim at first. Prosecutors reported multiple actions that the driver took, however, to attempt to create a false picture of his involvement in the man’s death. The prosecution’s statement reported a phone call that the man made to the bus line for whom he worked apparently notifying the company of an impaired person in the parking lot. He also exited the bus after striking the man to check for a pulse before he abandoned the scene.
A civil suit accusing the bus driver and his employer of negligence is pending on behalf of the victim’s widow. The unlawful actions that the man took after this pedestrian accident could provide solid support to the widow in finding the parties liable for compensation and damages.
On the morning of his death, the victim of the hit-and-run planned to fly halfway across the country to begin work at a new job. An estimate of the lost potential wages from his death could comprise a significant amount of the damages sought in his widow’s civil suit.
Source: NJ.com, “Bus driver pleads guilty in connection with fatal accident at Newark Airport“, Richard Khavkine, July 02, 2014