The Paramus school district has agreed to pay nearly $20 million to settle a pair of lawsuits stemming from a fatal bus crash in 2018.
The family of Miranda Vargas, the 10-year-old student killed in the crash, reached a $7 million settlement with the school district earlier this month. Meanwhile, the family of Asher Majeed, a surviving student who was critically injured in the crash, reached a $12.5 million settlement with the school district.
Dozens of students and staff from East Brook Middle School in Paramus were on a field trip to Waterloo Village in Stanhope on May 17, 2018 when the bus driver, Hudy Muldrow, Sr., missed his exit on Route 80, veered across three lanes of traffic and attempted to cross to the other side of the highway illegally. The bus was hit by an oncoming dump truck.
Vargas and social studies teacher Jennifer Williamson Kennedy were killed in the crash. The Kennedy family has sued the school district, and that litigation remains ongoing.
Muldrow, whose driving record included 20 license suspensions and five prior crashes, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is eligible for release in 2025, when he will be 84 years old. The families of the 43 other students on the bus have also sued the dump truck company, Mendez Trucking.
