The bus driver who allegedly used a personal GPS to guide his double-decker bus to a too-low bridge was acquitted Tuesday of homicide charges in the deaths of four passengers, which included a Temple University student and a Voorhees, N.J. resident.
Onondaga County Court Judge Anthony Aloi announced the verdict after a non-jury trial of 60-year-old John Tomaszewski of Yardville, N.J.
Tomaszewski would have faced up to four years in state prison on each of four counts of criminally negligent homicide.
Kevin Coffey, 19, from Manhattan, Kansas, was a member of Temple’s honors program when he was killed on the double-decker bus. Deanna Armstrong, 18, of Voorhees, N.J., Ashwani Mehta, 34, of India and Benjamin Okorie, 35, of Malaysia, were all killed in the crash as well.
The fatal accident happened when the Megabus, carrying 29 people, slammed into a low railroad bridge just outside Syracuse early on the morning of Sept. 11, 2010.
The bus struck the bridge between two large signs warning that the clearance was 10 feet, 9 inches. The bus was approximately 13 feet tall. Its upper level was obliterated in the front.
Tomaszewski was driving from Philadelphia to Toronto with a planned stop at the Regional Transportation Center in Syracuse when he missed an exit from Interstate 81 and ended up on the parkway instead – not part of the regular route.
Prosecutors say that Tomaszewski passed a total of 13 sign warning that the bridge was too low for the double-decker bus.
Several civil lawsuits have been filed against the bus company, Tomaszewski and others. They were put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case.
