The family of the 10-year-old girl who was killed in last week’s horrific school bus crash in New Jersey has filed a complaint against the Paramus Board of Education and the borough of Paramus because of the driver’s spotty record, a lawyer representing the family said Friday.
David Fried, the attorney representing the family of 10-year-old Miranda Vargas, said the family moved forward with the complaint after it was revealed that bus driver Hudy Muldrow Sr., 77, had his driver’s license previously suspended 14 times.
“Having learned the last few days of the driving record that Mr. Muldrow has and that the Paramus Board of Education had him driving children has caused them to be even more distraught,” Fried told reporters outside of the Morris County Courthouse hours after Muldrow — who was charged with reckless vehicular homicide – made his first court appearance in the case.
“While there’s never any good to come from this horrible tragedy, they feel strongly that they want to have a voice and hopefully talk about the need for better vetting and better evaluation of who gets the opportunity to drive children,” Fried said.
“As Mr. Vargas said to me the other day, ‘This is the future of America and they’re being put into the hands of people who at times probably had no business being a bus driver,'” he said. “On that issue, they want to remain involved and at this point that’s been one of the many bitter pills they have to swallow.”
The complaint was filed in Bergen County, Fried said.
Miranda, a fifth-grade student at the East Brook Middle School, and social studies teacher Jennifer Williamson, 51, were killed in the May 17 crash.
Muldrow was one of three bus drivers that day for the Paramus school district driving children and teachers from the school to the historic Water Village.
Authorities allege that after missing a turn Muldrow attempted an illegal U-turn on I-80 in Mount Olive by veering the school bus “to the left in an apparent attempt to gain access to the official-use only access point located between the East and Westbound lanes of Route 80.”
The bus was then struck by a dump truck traveling in the center lane of the three-lane highway.
At the time of the crash, Muldrow had a valid commercial driver’s license and a valid school bus endorsement, according to the Motor Vehicle Commission.
However, his license had been suspended 14 times between 1975 and 2017, mostly for administrative reasons, state records show.
With Post wires




