Second person dies in New Jersey Transit bus collision

A second person has died in a collision between two New Jersey Transit buses in Newark that also left 17 injured and one of the vehicles nearly split in two.

The incident happened at theintersection of Raymond Boulevardand North Broad Street just after 6 a.m. Friday in downtown Newark, reports said. One bus was on its way to South Orange, New Jersey from New York City, while the other was heading to Newark Penn Station from North Arlington, Pix11 reported.

The morning collision reportedly affected more than a dozen bus routes and traffic in the area, as authorities responded to the mangled scene. A bystander described the aftermath as a “nightmare,” to NBC4.

Scenes from the accident show a t-bone crash, where one bus was nearly split in half, and the second suffered significant damage to the front.

A bus driver was pronounced dead at the scene, and one of the passengers later also died, according toABC7. Six of the remaining 17 injured were in critical condition.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash, ABC7 added.

“We have some preliminarily kind of data that says we suspect one of the bus drivers may have gone through a red light,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said, according to the station. “We are not positive about that, but that is what is being said.”