A blessing no one was hurt.
I have no idea what was going on in that flightdeck, so I'll try my best not to pass judgement.
I do find it hard to believe that BOTH flightcrew member missed this one. There is a site on the net that shows the flightpaths onf airplanes on approach into EWR. It looks like the guys actually sidestepped over the Turnpike.
Weird.