Update: Police Release Details Of Middletown Bus Crash

A 65-year-old bus driver was airlifted to the hospital after a crash involving her school bus and a parked tractor-trailer Friday morning on Route 35, police said.

Police said the truck driver was not in his rig at the time of the crash, and he walked away from the area before officers arrived at the scene.

Officers have identified him after obtaining video footage from a local store and they are working with the trucking company to find him, police said.

The bus driver, Beverly Cerbone, 65, from the Port Monmouth section of town, suffered non-life threatening injuries in the crash, according to a news release from Deputy Chief Stephen Dollinger.

She was flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

The crash closed the highway for several hours Friday morning.

Around 6:40 a.m. Friday, police were called to the accident on Route 35, just south of New Monmouth Road.

The Helfrich bus, driven by Cerbone, was heading south on the highway when it hit a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of the road, according to a news release.

There were no students aboard the bus when it hit a parked tractor-trailer, according to Dollinger.

The bus was not a Middletown schools run, according to the district.

The bus driver was extricated from the vehicle shortly before 8:30 a.m. That driver was airlifted to the hospital, Dollinger said.

Police are asking anyone who witnessed the accident to call the Traffic Bureau at 732-615-2045.

The investigation is being led by Corporal Darrin Simon.

The New Jersey State Police, the Leonardo and Middletown First Aids Squads, the Old Village and Middletown Fire Companies, and MONOC Paramedics assisted at the scene.