Crowd mourns bus crash victims

WOODBRIDGE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- More than 200 people gathered Sunday to bury two New jersey senior citizens who died last week when their tour bus plummeted more than 300 feet down a Chilean mountainside.
Arthur Kovar, 67, and his wife Frieda, 74, are the first New Jersey victims to be buried from the wreck that killed a dozen people, including 10 from a close-knit Monroe Township retirement community.
The Kovars' coffins, draped in cloth adorned with the yellow Star of David, were carried to the burial site at the Mount Lebanon Cemetery where a rabbi addressed a circled crowd of friends and family.
"They took leave of us doing what they loved. They took leave of us traveling," said Rabbi Shawn Zell. "They never traveled alone. They always traveled with a large group of friends."
The Kovars were part of a 64-member group organized by the Jewish organization, B'nai B'rith, that was traveling aboard the cruise ship Millennium.
A small group had gone on a side excursion to the mountains, and the 12 victims were killed when their tour bus tumbled more than 300 feet down a mountainside.
Prosecutor Manuel Gonzalez said the bus driver, who was hospitalized under police watch, may have fallen asleep on the curvy road as the tourists returned to the cruise ship from a national park visit. A funeral for two other victims from Stamford, Conn., was also Sunday.
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