The February 2012 collision in Chesterfield killed 11-year-old Isabelle Tezsla and seriously injured several others, including her triplet sisters and an 11-year-old boy.
CHESTERFIELD -- The New Jersey Turnpike Authority and insurance companies for their contractors will contribute $1.65 million to a settlement pool for victims of a 2012 school bus crash in Chesterfield that killed an 11-year-old girl.
A dump truck that collided with the school bus was hauling material from a Turnpike highway widening project between exits 6 and 9.
On Tuesday, the Turnpike authority's board of commissioners voted to approve paying $500,000 of authority money toward the fund, which is the entities' deductible from its own liability insurance policy.
The rest will come from an insurance program for contractors working for the authority.
Lawsuits filed following the February 2012 crash named several parties associated with both vehicles and the drivers.
They also named the Turnpike Authority, entities associated with the truck and two contractors working on the widening project, South State Inc. and Wyndham Construction LLC, Turnpike documents show.
Attorneys working for the authority had recommended settlement of what they said could be a protracted litigation.
Lawyers involved in the lawsuits were not immediately available for comment Tuesday. Burlington County court records show several of the lawsuits have been consolidated and settled this past summer.
The February 2012 collision at Old York Road and Route 528 killed 11-year-old Isabelle Tezsla and seriously injured several others on a school bus heading for Chesterfield Elementary School.
Among those critically injured were Isabelle's triplet sisters, Natalie and Sophie Tezsla and 11-year-old classmate Jonathan Zdybel.
The school bus was northbound on Old York Road when it pulled into the path of the truck, driven by Michael Caporale of New Egypt, which was eastbound on Route 528.
Investigators have said Caporale had the right of way and the bus driver, John Tieman of Beverly, should have seen the dump truck coming from where he was stopped.
The truck, which was later determined to be overloaded, struck the side of the bus near the rear, causing it to spin and strike a pole.
And the dump truck was traveling between 53 mph and 58 mph in a 45-mph zone, investigators said. The braking ability of the truck was found reduced by an estimated 32 percent because of a combination of problems, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report on the crash.
Tieman was suffering from fatigue due to a lack of quality sleep because of prescription medication use, officials said. Investigators for the NTSB said during a July 2013 hearing that Tieman should not have been issued a commercial driver's license if his medical history was disclosed at the time of his license exam.
Tieman was ticketed for failing to stop or yield, and Caporale was issued a summons for failing to secure a container and failing to cover the load of a dump truck with a tarp.
The New Jersey State police also issued four summonses to the owner of the dump truck, Herman's Trucking of Wrightstown, for commercial vehicle citations.
In November 2013, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office announced that neither driver would face criminal charges.
In early 2014, the intersection was transformed into a into a traffic circle. Officials had said plans to convert the intersection existed as far back as 2007.
- NJ Staff Writer Larry Higgs contributed to this report.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook