Update On Passaic Pedestrian Killed by NJ
Transit Bus Driver
Ex-NJ Transit bus driver in fatal
pedestrian accident draws probationary term
DECEMBER
19, 2014, 6:34 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2014,
9:50 AM
BY
KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF
WRITER |
THE
RECORD
DECEMBER
19, 2014, 6:34 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2014,
9:50 AM
BY
KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF
WRITER |
THE
RECORD
Former NJ Transit bus
driver Catherine Collier, 67, with attorney Kenyatta Stewart at her sentencing
Friday.
A former NJ Transit
bus driver was sentenced Friday to three years’ probation for causing a crash
that killed a pedestrian in Passaic last year. “It was not my
intention for this to happen,” Catherine Collier, 67, said at her sentencing in
state Superior Court in Paterson. Collier also was
sentenced to a one-year suspended jail term, which she will not have to serve
if she completes probation without violations.
Assistant Prosecutor
Michael DeMarco with Carmela Currier, mother of Joseph Currier, 49, who was
struck and killed in 2012 by the bus Collier was driving. Judge Adam Jacobs also
ordered Collier to perform 150 hours of community service geared towards
educating young adults about safe driving — “That is the only positive
message that can come from this double tragedy,” the judge said. Collier was charged
with vehicular homicide after the bus she was driving struck and killed
49-year-old Joseph Currier of Passaic on Sept. 27, 2012.
Authorities said
Currier was a passenger in the Route 74U bus that Collier was driving. He got
off the bus near Main and Brook avenues and was in a crosswalk on Main Avenue
when he was hit by the bus, they said.
Passaic County
prosecutors said Collier accelerated at an intersection as the traffic light
was turning from yellow to red, and ended up running a red light before hitting
Currier.
Collier initially was
charged with a second-degree offense, but later pleaded guilty to a
fourth-degree charge of assault-by-auto.
Currier’s mother,
Carmela Currier, said at the sentencing on Friday that she was devastated by
the loss of her son. “This has hit me very,
very hard,” she said, asking the judge for a stiff sentence. “His life was
taken away. I like to see justice done for my son.”
Collier later
apologized to Currier. “I want you to know
that anything I can do for you, I will do it from the bottom of my heart,” she
said to Currier.
Collier’s attorney,
Kenyatta Stewart, said his client deserved leniency because she has never been
in trouble with the law in her life. Stewart also referred to the fatal crash
as an accident.
“I use the word
‘accident’ because she never meant for this to happen,” Stewart said. Collier worked for NJ
Transit for more than 25 years and was eligible for retirement in 2011, but
continued to drive
because she did not
want to stay home, Stewart said.
Administrators at NJ
Transit have said Collier left the agency in December 2013.
Email:
markos@northjersey.com
Email:
markos@northjersey.com
It is a shame that this bus driver only get probation for
ending a pedestrian life. She still gets the opportunity to spend time with her
family but this pedestrian does not. There should be some jail time for some of
these bus drivers ending countless lives. Some of these bus drivers drive reckless
because they know they will not lose their jobs or go to jail. These reckless bus drivers need to go to jail
so they can really think what she done. The USA laws do not care about human
life for the victims only for the criminals nor does state run transportations
such as NJ Transit. There needs to be a change. Please go on change.org to have
some of these reckless bus driver be held accountable for their actions.
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