School bus burns during fiery crash in Colts Neck

COLTS NECK — A small school bus caught fire and its driver killed after a crash near the entrance to Brookdale Community College on Tuesday afternoon.

A 2004 Dodge Durango van traveling east on Phalanx Road collided head on into a small 16-passenger school bus owned by Helfrich & Sons of Keansburg around 2:25 p.m. according to Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Charles Webster. The driver of the bus, a school bus aide and one student were on board and taken to to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune Township where the driver later died, according to Webster.

Aerial footage from CBS showed the badly burned remains of the bus on Phalanx Road over the Swimming River Reservoir on the border between the Lincroft section of Middletown and Colts Neck, and the black mini-van with heavy damage in the front.

The road was closed between Woodhollow Road and Newman Springs Road including the Campus Drive entrance to Brookdale Community College for several hours for an investigation and cleanup.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

School bus burns, driver killed during fiery crash in Colts Neck, police say