(Image source from: newyork.cbslocal.com)

Over dozen passengers on a school bus who were on their way home from an outing had a brush with death on Saturday when a crash overturned them onto the New Jersey Turnpike. 

Cops say the late afternoon incident in East Brunswick was the result of a collision with another vehicle that authorities initially said sped away from the scene, per CBS New York.

Ras Baraka, Newark Mayor walked back the hit-and-run assessment, saying it remained early in a continuing probe.

Miraculously, there were no serious injuries or fatalities. Yet, the incident was the grim reminder of another New Jersey school bus crash that left a young student and beloved middle school teacher dead.

For treatment Thirty-six adults and children were taken to a hospital in Edison for non-life threatening injuries.

"Obviously people are shaken up, you had children involved," Baraka said after traveling to the hospital Saturday night. "People are concerned about the well-being of their children, they want to go home and not be at a hospital all night."

For about an hour the multiple ways of the busy New Jersey Turnpike were blocked while government cleared the roadway.

By Sowmya Sangam