Snow-laden roof collapses, killing man: Burlco school-bus driver, 51, on porch when hit

Residents near Morton and East Washington streets in Riverside, Burlington County, had grown accustomed to the plows rattling down the streets and the scrape of shovels against pavement in recent days, but Wednesday night the snow brought a jarring, explosive sound that was followed by painful cries. Then, death.

James D. Boles, a lifelong resident of Morton Street, was on a second-floor back porch about 8:30 p.m., when the large, snow-covered roof about 10 feet above collapsed on the 51-year-old bus driver.

"It was like a bomb," said neighbor Todd Manning, who was watching a Flyers game when the structure fell. "It sounded like mayhem."

Manning, 32; his brother, and a neighbor rushed to Boles' three-story home, where he lived with his mother, and tried to use a fallen metal railing to push the collapsed roof onto the ground. The roof barely budged, he said, and bent the railing they were using as leverage.

Boles cried out for help for several minutes, Manning said, but eventually grew silent.

"Out of all the minutes in a day, he was out there for maybe three of them and this happens," he said yesterday, staring at the roof that still rested on the porch.

Riverside Police Chief Paul Tursi said Boles, who was trapped under one of the roof's beams, didn't respond when rescue crews tried to stabilize the structure and remove him. Manning said the crews eventually used an inflatable device to lift the roof and cut part of it away before taking Boles through the home and out a second-floor window. Paramedics were unable to revive Boles and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tursi said that heavy snow on the porch roof caused it to pull away from the framework of the house.

"There was just too much snow," said Boles' brother, Mark.

Neighbors, who took breaks from shoveling yesterday to peer at the rubble, said Boles had been a former youth-basketball coach in town and worked as a bus driver for the nearby Cinnaminson School District.

"We were all up all night," said neighbor Rick Kostrub. "He was a great guy."

His mother, Jean Boles, called her son "the public-relations man" of Riverside because he was so jovial.

"He was a nice boy who would do anything for you," she said, standing in the doorway of the family's home.

According to the Associated Press, a man in East Brunswick, Middlesex County, was also killed Wednesday night when a snow-laden branch fell on him while he was using a snowblower to clear his driveway.