SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A U.S. judge is set to announce a verdict today in the case of a bus driver charged with homicide after his Toronto-bound double-decker crashed into a low overpass in central New York state, killing four passengers.
Onondaga County Court Judge Anthony Aloi heard the non-jury case against 60-year-old John Tomaszewski (tom-uh-SHEV’-skee) of Yardville, N.J.
Tomaszewski could face up to four years in state prison on each of four counts if convicted of criminally negligent homicide.
The Philadelphia-to-Toronto Megabus was carrying 29 people, including seven Canadians, when Tomaszewski made a wrong turn off an interstate highway just outside downtown Syracuse on Sept. 11, 2010.
Four passengers died and 24 were injured when the top of the double-decker collided with the bottom of a railway bridge at 90 km/h, causing the bus to fall on its side.
Those killed included Ashwani Mehta, 34, an information technology specialist from India, and Benjamin Okorie, 35, a preacher from Malaysia. A New Jersey teenager and a Philadelphia college student from Kansas were also killed.
After months of review following the crash, a grand jury decided to indict Tomaszewski on four counts of criminally negligent homicide.
At an arraignment in Onondaga County Court last May, attorney Scott Brenneck entered a not guilty plea for Tomaszewski.
Brenneck also said Tomaszewski suffered numerous injuries in the crash, including a traumatic brain injury.
According to police, Tomaszewski was using a personal GPS with an audio feature before the crash and may have been distracted. There are 12 signs along the road to warn vehicles of the low railway bridge, some with flashing yellow lights.
Coach USA, which operates Megabus, has said that using any GPS device while driving is against company policy.
Each bus, it said, is equipped with a GPS system that allows the company to track its location, but the device cannot be used by a driver to get directions.
Chicago-based Megabus operates about 100 double-decker buses on scheduled routes to 33 cities in the Northeast and Midwest.
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