Bus driver out of hospital
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

JACKSON - Susan Kaiser, the Jackson School District bus driver who was injured in a motor vehicle accident on March 9, appears to be on the road to recovery.

Kaiser, 58, of Lakehurst, was transferred from Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, to a sub-acute facility where she will receive additional physical therapy, according to hospital spokesman John Shaeffer.

Kaiser was transferred to the sub-acute facility on March 22.

In another development, the landscaping company that owns the trailer that separated from a truck and struck the bus Kaiser was driving has been issued multiple summonses related to the accident.

The accident occurred when Kaiser's bus was hit by a hydro seed trailer that became separated from the 2004 Chev-rolet flatbed truck which was pulling it. The dump truck, owned by Down to Earth Landscaping, Jackson, was being driven by Albino Rufini, 30, of Freehold Borough, and was traveling east on East Commodore Boulevard near Cedar Swamp Road.

The trailer separated from the truck and crossed into the opposite lane, striking the school bus in the area where the driver's seat was located. Kaiser was airlifted by helicopter to Jersey Shore Uni-versity Medical Center where she was operated on and had been recovering since the accident.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Steve Janosko, of the Vehicle Homicide Unit of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, said summonses were issued to the landscaping company by the New Jersey State Police and the Transportation Safety Bureau, a division of the state police.

Janosko said the summonses were for equipment violations on the landscaping vehicle. He said the ball on the truck separated from the hitch.

Janosko said the first summons was for having unsecured equipment in the bed of the dump truck. The second summons was for a worn trailer hitch. The third summons was for inoperative trailer brakes and the fourth summons was for improper safety chains for the trailer.

"They had some chains on there, but they were not appropriate," he said. "At this point in time the driver was not given any summonses."

The criminal investigation is still pending, Janosko said.

A message left by the Tri-Town News at the Jackson office of Down to Earth Landscaping on March 26 was not returned.