CHESTERFIELD, NJ (PIX11)—
"This has been a really rough day for people in Chesterfield and we just want to go inside and pray."That's what Tara Gigliotti said as she went to a candlelight vigil at the Chesterfield Baptist Church to pray for the victims of Thursday's deadly school bus collision.
Chesterfield township is a close knit community of just a little more than seven-thousand people so practically everyone at tonight's candlelight vigil knew the families suffering in the school bus tragedy.
Foremost in people's prayers, the Tezsla girls, the 11-year-old triplet daughters of a New Jersey State trooper who were sitting together on the school bus. Isabella was killed; her two sisters are both in critical condition.
"When they would come into the elementary school, they were just the cutest girls," Alexis Napoleon said. "You could tell. They were growing up to be wonderful girls, this is tragic."
11-year-old Johnny Gigliotti choked back tears as he tried to talk about his best friend, Jonathan Zdybel, also in critical condition.
"I can't do anything for my friend in the hospital," little Johnny Gigliotti said.
The collision happened after 8:30 this morning at the intersection of Route 528 and Old York Road. The dump truck had a flashing yellow light at the intersection. The school bus, with 25 children on board from ages 5 to 11, had a flashing red light and the speed limit on both roads is 45 miles per hour.
"Who's to blame? Not time to blame anyone," John Moschitti, a Chesterfield resident said. "It's time to take care of the grieving families."
The investigation into the school bus collision is continuing. So far, neither driver has been charged.
