On July 8, 2019, before the Covid 19 Cornonvirus pandemic hit the State of New Jersey hard, the New Jersey Legislature passed the Thomas Canzanella 21st Century First Responders Act. The legislation provides Workers Compensation benefits to public safety workers which have been broadly defined. The Legislation, however, did not envision at the time it was passed that an epidemic would require not only the assistance of public safety workers but frontline grocery and delivery workers. The New Jersey Legislature is considering legislation to expand worker compensation coverage to those frontline workers as well.
NJ
Accident previously reported on the 2018 Route 80 school bus accident that
resulted in the death of a teacher and a student along with multiple injuries
to other students and staff on the school bus.
The bus driver Hudy Muldrow Sr. pleaded guilty to reckless vehicular
homicide, assault by auto and child endangerment this past December
(2019). The maximum penalty was 10 years
in Jail and that is the sentence that was imposed by the Superior Court Judge
sitting in the Morris County Courthouse in Morristown, New Jersey this week.
A
school trip turned very tragic when a lead bus missed an exit on Route 80
resulting in a delay in reaching the field trips destination. Mr. Muldrow who was following the lead bus
made a decision to take a shortcut by utilizing an Official Vehicle turnaround
in the middle median rather than go a substantial distance to the next Exit and
turnaround. A turnaround used only by
State Police officers in the performance of their duties. To get to the turnaround,
Mr. Muldrow would have to traverse three lanes of traffic in a short distance
from the entry ramp onto Route 80. What
possessed Mr. Muldrow to attempt such a feat is unknown but his actions changed
the lives of many persons as a Dump Truck traveling on Route 80, not expecting
a school bus to attempt such a maneuver could not stop in time and hit the bus’
rear with such force that it separated the cab portion of the bus from its
frame. A roadway video camera captured
the maneuver and the moment of impact exonerating the Dump Truck driver. The
accident took the lives of Jennifer Williamson, a 51-year-old teacher along
with a Miranda Vargas, a 10-year-old student on the bus. Williamson’s husband
and Vargas’ twin sister and mother spoke prior to sentencing.
On February 18, 2020, the
Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection as it faces hundreds of lawsuits
from Scouts that claim they were sexually abused. The Bankruptcy filing should not bar abuse
survivors from receiving compensation.
The Bankruptcy Court will likely create a Compensation Fund for abused
victims but there is likely a shorter filing deadline to make a claim than the
time period in the Superior Court of New Jersey.
If you or a loved one were
sexually abused by someone associated with the Boy Scouts, please call us at
(973) 481-4364 to speak with an attorney to protect your rights.
Paramus Board of Education School Bus driver, Hudy Muldrow Sr., pled guilty to two counts of Reckless Vehicular Homicide, five counts of Assault by Auto and five counts of Endangering the Welfare of Children arising out of the May 17, 2018 School Bus Accident on Route 80 in Mt. Olive. The Prosecutor has recommended a 10-year prison term. Sentencing is scheduled for February 2020.
As previously reported on NJAccident.com, the driving maneuver attempted by Hudy Muldrow Sr. was described as crossing in an almost perpendicular to the lanes of traffic on Route 80 to reach an Official Vehicle U-Turn in the middle median in Route 80 in Mt. Olive. Tragically, the driving maneuver ended in a tragic accident when the school bus driven by Hudy Muldrow, Sr’s was struck by a Dump Truck traveling the speed limit resulting in the passenger part of the bus being torn off of the frame of the bus. The impact caused the death of Teacher Jennifer Williamson and fifth-grader, Miranda Vargas. In addition, 43 passengers including children and teachers were injured.
Hudy Muldrow, Sr. license had been suspended over 14 times in his over 40-year driving career. Bus Driver Hudy Muldrow, Sr. was 77 years old at the time of the accident and is now 79 years old. A ten-year sentence would mean he would be 89 before he was released from jail.
(West Orange, NJ, July 30, 2019) The morning commute for motorists coming down into the Newark area in New Jersey was all but normal today. Commuters are used to slow-moving traffic but motorists realized that today’s delay was different. Traffic came to a complete stop for over an hour.
A crash between a
Commercial Construction Van and a motor vehicle resulted ultimately in a multi-vehicle
crash by a Dump Truck which collided with a State Trooper SUV, an Ambulance and
a Fire Truck on the scene of the earlier crash.
The roadway was open
temporarily to allow the miles of backup vehicles to move off the roadway. In the interim, three New Jersey State
Troopers were transported to the hospital along with a number of civilians who
were involved in the accident. After the
backlog was moved, the roadway was closed and the task of reconstructing what
happened began.
A couple weeks ago NJAccident.com published an article urging the New Jersey Supreme Court to overturn a Workers Compensation Judge’s decision and an Appellate Division Three-Judge panel’s decision upholding the denial of temporary disability benefits to Volunteer Firefighter who was injured during a fire call but who was unemployed because she was caring for her ailing father. We are glad to report that the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the lower court decisions and awarded temporary disability benefits to Volunteer Firefighters Jennifer Kocanowski temporary disability benefits as urged by our article.
Supreme Court Summary
The New Jersey Supreme
Court summarized its decision in the Syllabus of its decision released on
February 19, 2019 as follows:
Jennifer Kocanowski was
a volunteer firefighter for seventeen years and was injured in the course of
her duties. Kocanowski applied for and was denied temporary disability benefits
because she did not have outside employment. In this appeal, the Court
considers whether volunteer firefighters must be employed to be eligible for
temporary disability benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act, N.J.S.A.
34:15-1 to -146.
Kocanowski served fifteen years at the Finderne Fire Department in the Township of Bridgewater. In addition to her volunteer work, Kocanowski usually had outside paid employment, including working as a nanny and home health care aide. Kocanowski took a six-month leave from volunteer firefighting after her father’s death to care for her ill mother and settle her father’s estate. She returned to volunteer firefighting around July 2014, but did not resume outside employment.
