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NJ TRANSIT Bus Crash Leaves 1 Dead, 4 Injured On Garden State Parkway

UPDATED: 10:18 A.M. Oct. 2, 2013

SADDLE BROOK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- One person died and four people were critically injured when a NJ TRANSIT bus and a church van collided on the Garden State Parkway Tuesday night.

The accident happened around 7:30 p.m. at exit 159 southbound, authorities said.

NJ TRANSIT bus No. 8982 was headed back to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan on its route, when it was involved with a crash with a Ford Econoline passenger van, police said.

NJ TRANSIT Bus Crash Leaves 1 Dead, 4 Injured On Garden State Parkway

"It seems, at this point in the investigation, that the multi-passenger vehicle that was in the right lane veered into the left lane, striking the NJ TRANSIT bus," State Police Sgt. Brian Polite said.

The van flipped over and slid down the highway on its roof, 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg reported.

The bus had just finished its run to Ridgewood and was empty except for the driver at the time of the crash, but 23 people were in the van from Newark's Ministerios Bethel International Church. It was not clear where the church van was headed.

One passenger in the van was killed; four others were critically injured, Polite said.

The southbound Garden State Parkway was shut down following the crash.

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