$19.5M Settlement Reached In Fatal Bus Crash In Morris Co.

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — Five years after the tragic Paramus school bus crash on Route 80 that killed two people, two lawsuits have been settled for nearly $20 million.

According to court documents, Paramus Public Schools agreed to a $7 million settlement with the family of Miranda Vargas, a 10-year-old girl who died in the crash. The district also reached a $12.5 million settlement with the family of Asher Majeed, who was badly injured in the crash.

Bruce Nagel, who represented both families, said that the Vargas settlement is one of the largest infant death settlements in New Jersey.

"These cases, as they move forward, are extremely difficult for the families, and we will continue to support their children and the families in any way we can," Paramus Superintendent Sean Adams told Patch.

The lawsuits stemmed from the fatal bus crash on May 17, 2018, when school bus driver Hudy Muldrow Sr. was driving students from East Brook Middle School to Waterloo Village in Stanhope as part of a field trip.

Muldrow, then 77, was attempting to make an illegal U-turn through an official-use-only cut-through just past Exit 25 when the bus was struck by a dump truck.

According to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, Muldrow drove onto Route 206 south towards the on-ramp to I-80 West. Near the entry point to I-80, Muldrow is accused of turning sharply in an attempt to drive across all lanes of traffic to reach an official turn-around point in the median.

This move put the bus "almost perpendicular" to traffic traveling westbound on I-80, including the dump truck that hit it.

The impact knocked the bus into the center median and tore it into multiple pieces.

Muldrow has a long history of driving trouble, the State Motor Vehicle Commission confirmed, including 14 license suspensions.

Paramus officials previously said they were unaware of his driving record.

Vargas was killed in the crash alongside Jennifer Williamson, 51, a fifth-grade teacher from East Brook Middle School. The crash injured 43 additional students and staff members, including Majeed.

Majeed suffered "severe, grievous, permanent and painful" injuries, was placed on a ventilator and spent two weeks in a coma, relying on a feeding tube, according to a report from NJ Advance Media.

In 2019, Muldrow pleaded guilty to a pair of reckless vehicular homicide charges, five counts of fourth-degree assault by auto, one count of disorderly persons assault by auto and endangering the welfare of children in state Superior Court in Morristown.

That sentence called for an aggregate sentence of 10 years in New Jersey state prison—five years for each of the reckless vehicular homicide charges, which would run concurrently but would be subject to a mandatory minimum of 85 percent of the sentence, officials said.

After his release, he will lose his license for two years and spend three years on supervised parole, officials said.

According to Nagel, his firm is still pursuing the case against the dump truck's trucking company, Mendez Trucking.