A 7-year-old boy died after being struck by a school bus moments after exiting his vehicle in Gloucester County, New Jersey.

According to a  news release from the Greenwich Township Police Department, officers responded around 3:40 p.m. May 8 to reports of a “pedestrian motor vehicle crash involving a juvenile and a school bus.”

When officers arrived at the scene, they joined nearby residents in administering emergency medical aid to the child before Gloucester County Emergency Medical Services took over treatment efforts. The boy was transported to Cooper University Hospital, where he later died from his injuries, police said.

Authorities later identified the child as Hunter Smith of Gibbstown. Investigators said they believe the crash happened shortly after the boy exited the school bus. The incident stunned residents in the neighborhood, as emergency lights filled the streets while first responders worked to save the child.

“I heard the police and ambulance and all that stuff,” one neighbor told local news reporters. “I thought it was down the street. Then I come and look out here and, next thing you know, the whole neighborhood’s crawling with red lights and blue lights.”

The neighbor said he frequently saw the boy walking to and from the bus stop. “I see the kid walking up, down the street every day, either going to school or coming from school or to the bus stop,” he said. “It’s tragic, it’s devastating for the family. May God rest his soul.”

Investigation Underway As Video Shows Horrific Aftermath of Incident

Video captured by a Ring doorbell camera and obtained by a local news outlet showed a frantic aftermath moments after the collision. In the footage, a woman can be seen rushing to a nearby home and pleading for help while the school bus remained stopped in the roadway. Several residents gathered around the Smith in an attempt to assist before emergency crews arrived.

The bus involved in the incident was operated by Holcomb Transportation. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to local reporters that the bus driver is a 48-year-old woman who has worked for Holcomb Transportation since 2024 and had no prior issues.

In a statement via local news, Holcomb Transportation said it is “heartbroken” and “deeply concerned” over the tragedy.

“We are fully cooperating with all relevant authorities as they work to determine the circumstances surrounding this incident,” Frank Patrinicola, the company’s director of safety and risk, said in part. “In addition to the official investigation, we have launched our own internal review to understand exactly what happened and to ensure that every appropriate measure is taken moving forward.”

Officials have not released additional details about how the crash occurred or whether any charges are being considered. The incident remains under investigation. In the wake of the tragedy, community organizations and local officials began offering support to grieving residents and students.

A representative from Clonmell United Methodist Church announced it would open Saturday for residents impacted by the incident, according to the police department’s release. The Greenwich Township School District in New Jersey also said counseling services would be available for students.

According to data compiled by School Transportation News, at least eight student fatalities tied to school transportation incidents have occurred during the current 2025–2026 school year, including six pedestrian deaths in which students were struck by school buses. STN research also identified that at least 18 students died in school transportation-related incidents during the 2024–2025 school year. Of those cases, at least eight involved students who were struck and killed by a school bus.

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The post New Jersey School Bus Hits, Kills 7-Year-Old Pedestrian appeared first on School Transportation News.

Officers with the Washington Township Police Department helped free a school bus stuck in deep snow during a powerful winter storm hitting the East Coast.

It has been a season of severe winter storms in New Jersey and much of the Northeast as well as Southeast and Midwest. Even before last week’s Nor’Easter storm, New Jersey student transportation was impacted.

The Washington Township Police received a call Jan. 28 just before 9 a.m. that a school bus with children on board was stranded on a road covered with snow and ice. Officers responded quickly, working as a team to clear snow from around the tires and shovel behind the school bus to give it traction. Once freed, the bus driver safely continued the route.

“This is what Community Caretaking looks like,” the department wrote in a social media post highlighting the rescue.

Then came last week’s Nor’Easter, which closed school for several days across New Jersey and at least eight other states in the Northeast and New England.

New Jersey Office of Emergency Management operating under the Division of the New Jersey State Police issued a mandatory statewide travel restriction due to heavy snowfall, blizzard-like conditions, and strong winds that made travel hazardous. The restriction, which began at 9 p.m. on Feb. 22, was extended through noon the following day, to give road crews time to clear snow-covered roadways and ensure public safety.

Under the official travel ban, all non-exempt vehicles were prohibited from operating on state, county, municipal and interstate roads. Exemptions included emergency responders, public works and snow removal crews, transportation personnel, healthcare workers, utility crews, and others supporting essential services.

Officials urged residents to avoid non-essential travel until conditions improved, noting that slick, snow-packed roads and limited visibility could persist even after the restriction was lifted.

The storm dropped significant snow across parts of New Jersey and left many roadways treacherous, prompting ongoing cleanup efforts by municipal crews and state agencies.

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The post Quick-Acting New Jersey Police Free School Bus Stuck in Blizzard appeared first on School Transportation News.

A trailblazing regional greenhouse gas partnership on the East Coast is considering possible changes or expansion that would allow it to keep building on its success — and the stakes grew higher last month with the reelection of Donald Trump.

The 11-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, established in 2005, is the country’s first regional cap-and-invest system for reducing carbon emissions from power generation. Since 2021, administrators have been conducting a program review, analyzing its performance since the last review in 2017 and weighing potential adjustments to make sure it continues to deliver benefits to member states.

The role of such programs is more crucial as Trump’s pledges to roll back federal climate action leaves it up to cities, states, and the private sector to maintain the country’s momentum on clean energy over the next four years. In RGGI, as the regional initiative is known, states have a potential model for scaling their impact through collaboration. 

“RGGI has not only been an effective climate policy, it’s been an extraordinary example of how states can work together on common goals,” said Daniel Sosland, president of climate and energy nonprofit Acadia Center. “It is a major vehicle for climate policy now in the states, more than it might have seemed before the election.” 

How RGGI works

RGGI sets a cap for total power plant carbon emissions among member states. Individual generators must then buy allowances from the state, up to the total cap, for each ton of carbon dioxide they produce in a year. The cap lowers over time, forcing power plants to either reduce emissions or pay more to buy allowances from a shrinking pool.

States then reinvest the proceeds from these auctions into programs that further reduce emissions and help energy customers, including energy efficiency initiatives, direct bill assistance, and renewable energy projects. Since 2008, RGGI has generated $8.3 billion for participating states, and carbon dioxide emissions from power generation in the nine states that have consistently participated fell by about half between 2008 and 2021, a considerably faster rate than the rest of the country. 

“It has really thrived and been really effective across multiple administrations,” said Jackson Morris, state power sector director with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “RGGI is a winning model. It’s not theoretical — we’ve got numbers.”

Currently, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont are part of the program. Virginia joined RGGI in 2021, but in 2023 Gov. Glenn Youngkin repealed the state’s participation, a move immediately challenged in court; a judge ruled last month that the governor lacked the authority to withdraw the state from initiative, though a spokesman for the governor has declared the state’s intention to appeal. 

There is widespread agreement that RGGI will endure despite likely federal hostility to climate measures. There was no attempt to take direct action against it during Trump’s first term, nor has there been any concerted industry opposition, said Conservation Law Foundation president Bradley Campbell, who was involved in the founding of RGGI when he was commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Supporters also note that the program has historically had broad bipartisan support: Participating states have been led through the years by both Republican and Democratic governors and legislatures. 

Politics has had some influence over the years, though only at the margins. New Jersey, a founding member of RGGI, left in 2011 when Chris Christie was governor, but returned in 2020 following an executive order from his successor. Pennsylvania joined in 2022 through an executive order from the governor, but its participation is now being challenged in court. 

Still, RGGI’s foundations are solid and will remain so, experts said. 

“The basic infrastructure has weathered the political winds over the decades,” Campbell said.

Looking forward

Nonetheless, RGGI will need to make some carefully thought-out program design decisions during its current review to make an impact in the face of falling federal support for decarbonization. 

One question under consideration is whether to maintain the existing trajectory for the overall emissions cap for the program — a reduction of 30% between 2020 and 2030, then holding steady thereafter — or to continue lowering the limit after 2030. 

The RGGI states are also contemplating a possible change to the compliance schedule that would require power generators to acquire allowances worth 100% of their carbon emissions each year, and certify compliance annually. The current system calls for certification every three years, and only mandates allowances equivalent to half of carbon emissions for the first two years of each period.

The program is looking for ways to appeal to potential new participant states that have less aggressive decarbonization goals than current member states without watering down the program’s overall impact on decarbonization, said Acadia Center policy analyst Paola Tamayo. Acadia suggested possible program mechanisms such as giving proportionately more allowances to states with more stringent emissions targets to incentivize tighter limits.

“At this point it is critical for states to maintain a high level of ambition when it comes to programs like RGGI,” Tamayo said. “There are different mechanisms that they can implement to accommodate other states.”

The program review is expected to yield a model rule some time over the winter, though updates may be made into the spring as the RGGI states receive and consider feedback on how to accommodate potential new participants.  

States will also need to maintain and strengthen their own climate policies to magnify the impact of RGGI, Campbell said. He pointed to Massachusetts, where Gov. Maura Healey needs to show “bolder leadership,” he said, and Maine and Vermont, where the Conservation Law Foundation has filed lawsuits in an attempt to compel the states to meet their own carbon reduction deadlines. 

“It’s especially important that the states that have strong emissions reduction mandates speed up the implementation of their climate laws,” he said. “State leadership on these issues is going to be more important than ever.”

As climate focus shifts to states, East Coast partnership offers model for multi-state collaboration is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.