The cement truck involved in Monday’s in Locust Valley that left a school bus driver dead and sent four kids and one adult to the hospital is from Lindenhurst.
That’s according to reports on and Newsday.com.
The truck is reportedly owned by Nicolia Ready Mix in Lindenhurst, and the president of the cement mixing company told Newsday his driver "took a wrong turn on the wrong road" before slamming into a mini school bus on Oyster Bay Road.
The collision killed the bus driver, who was identified on Tuesday as Jorge Guevara, 45, of Locust Valley.
"He probably lost his way, and ended up there," said Antonio L. Nicolia, president of Nicolia Ready Mix, told Newsday about the driver, whose name hasn’t yet been released. "It wasn't the route he took to go up there."
The driver of the cement truck, a 44-year-old male, was treated at an area hospital and released.
But Guevara was died at the scene after the truck struck a Long Island Railroad overpass and collided with the bus he was driving in the opposite lane at 3:15 p.m. on July 23, according to a statement from Nassau County Police.
Five males on the bus, including three six-year-olds, a nine-year-old and one adult aged 64, were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
The truck driver hasn’t been charged with a crime, according to Inspector Kenneth Lack, a Nassau police spokesman. "At this time, he's just an accident victim," he told Newsday.
Nicolia also told Newsday the truck driver didn't realize the 2003 Oshkosh cement mixer - which is about 13 feet high - was too tall to fit under the LIRR overpass - which has about 10 feet of clearance, according to police.
The truck was heading Eastbound on Oyster Bay Road near Matinecock Court when it failed to clear the overpass. The mixing compartment was knocked from the truck as the vehicle collided with the bus in the Westbound lane.
The bus was transporting children from a day camp in the area.
According to one eyewitness, the truck driver got out to help the kids despite being injured.
Currently, it’s unknown if the truck driver was speeding, Lack told Newsday, and the police, he said, are investigating all possible contributing factors, including speeding, alcohol, drugs and mechanical failure.
Nicolia told Newsday the truck driver wasn’t speeding, has had a clean driving record for the four years he’s worked for the company and has passed all random drug and alcohol tests during that time.
"This is his first accident with the company," Nicolia told Newsday.
An investigation into the accident is continuing, police said.
Read the full Newsday.com report here.
Read the full Glen Cove Patch reports and .
