TETERBORO, N.J. (CBS 2) – Disaster was averted Friday at Teterboro Airport — thanks to new protective barrier.

A private jet skidded off the runway and stopped moments before crossing onto Route 46.

CBS 2′s Derricke Dennis reports an arrestor bed barrier costing $8 million is that new technology. It’s what stopped the plane from crossing the road in the middle of traffic. Without that barrier this would be a much different story.

The private Gulfstream plane with seven passengers and two pilots on board overshot the runway slammed into the arrestor bed, but incredibly no one on the ground or the plane was injured.

Likely thanks the arrestor bed barrier, which is made of specially designed, aerated cement blocks.

Airport authorities said the barrier did just as it was designed — stopping the plane in its tracks, protecting the passengers and crew — and the innocent drivers on Route 46.

This kind of crash has happened before. In 2006, a plane did the same thing — overshooting the runway, crashing into the arrestor bed and avoiding the road.

But In February of 2005, before the arrestor bed was installed, a corporate jet shot off the end of the runway, across Route 46, smashing into cars and hitting the wall of a warehouse across the street. Twenty people were injured.

The difference then — and now – was the arrestor bed preventing injuries at Teterboro.

One witness told Dennis off camera the plane was trying to takeoff, but never got off the ground.

A statement from the Bergen County executive late Friday afternoon called this crash “fortuitous,” saying the arrestor bed prevented thousands of dollars in property damage, and, more importantly, resulted in no loss of life.