13 dead as tour bus overturns in New York City

Source: New York Times

Updated | 6:58 a.m. Thirteen people were killed and at least six more critically injured when a tour bus overturned on a highway in the Bronx around 5:30 a.m. Saturday, the Fire Department said.

“The bus flipped over, slid on its side, hit a light pole,” a Fire Department spokesman said. “The light pole stood intact and sheared the whole top of the bus off. It went through the whole bus form front to rear.”

The accident happened as the bus headed south on the New England Thruway near Exit 14, the interchange with the Henry Hudson Parkway, just north of Pelham Bay Park.

Read more: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/six-dead-as-bus-overturns-on-bronx-highway/?hp

I wonder how it managed to flip.

Just happened. ( NYT: Call someone who lives in the Bronx.)

What a horror. Sheeezzz.

They've already corrected it.

Awful.

Seems they might have started out in Boston as they were headed south and the service runs between NYC and the Boston suburbs; maybe the driver fell asleep:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/12/2011-03-12_bronx_tour_bus_crash_on_highway_kills_at_least_13_people_after_bus_smashes_into_.html

What's he doing getting off there?


Hideous.

The accident occurred on I-95. Apparently, it was cut off by a semi (MSNBC). I know that interchange very well. Traffic is going in all directions. You have to lurch across 2 lanes to get your exit at the same time traffic is merging on. It's a nightmare.

Fourteen people are dead after a tour bus traveling to New York from the Mohegan Sun casino was clipped by a tractor-trailer, flipped on its side and careened into the support pole of a large metal road sign, officials said.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-mohegan-sun-bus-crash-0313-20110312-17,0,456131.story

It seems like once the bus is sliding on its side it should be rapidly decelerating, unless the road is icy.

What a terrible tragedy.

There is an article claiming when one drives 3 straight hours at night, that is equal to having a point zero zero eight alcohol level in your bloodstream.

That's the legal limit in a lot of places. .008 would be almost nothing.

I was fuzzy headed when I commented earlier this morning.

A few feet to left or right and most probably would have survived, but that pole was lined up right in line to slice through the windshield and windows. Not a lucky day for the gambler's.

I hope they find the driver who just kept on going.

Police began a hunt for the driver of the tractor trailer, which did not stop after the crash, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

The bus, operated by the charter company World Wide Tours, was headed to Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood carrying a full load of passengers returning from the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn.

As it entered the city at around 5:30 a.m., it was struck from behind by a tractor trailer, Browne said. The bus began swerving, toppled and crashed into the support post for a highway sign indicating the exit for the Hutchinson Parkway.

The pole entered through the front window, then sheared the bus from front to back along the window line, peeling the roof off all the way to the back tires.

More details here:

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/135439/bronx-tour-bus-crash-kills-14--injures-18

and here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/nyregion/13crash.html?_r=1&hp