Three people are dead and at least 16 are injured after a private charter bus smashed into a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus in New York City early this morning, reports DNAInfo. Newly released security video shows the three-axle coach blow through a red light and strike the city bus at high speed before mounting the sidewalk and demolishing several storefronts.
According to the NYPD, a bus on the Q20 route with fifteen passengers on board was making a legal right turn onto Northern Boulevard in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing just after 6 am Monday morning when the accident occurred. In the harrowing video, we see the MTA bus slowly pulling out into the intersection, only getting about halfway through the wide turn before the private bus flies into view, running the red light and hitting the rear corner.
The impact spins the city bus around and sends the coach up onto the sidewalk, where it takes out several storefronts. Knowing what's about to happen, it's haunting to watch the bus' side light up with the oncoming headlights in those last few seconds of normalcy. A photograph of the wreckage obtained by the New York Post reportedly shows the coach's speedometer stuck at 60 mph, which is double the speed limit for that section of road. No brake lights are visible.
Just in NEW video showing the second the buses collided in #queens . 3 killed, more than a dozen injured More soon @ABC7NY pic.twitter.com/pWwFrgWS86
— Kemberly Richardson (@kemrichardson7) September 18, 2017
The private bus driver, an MTA bus passenger, and a pedestrian were all killed instantly. Of the sixteen injured, six remain in critical condition, the NYPD told DNAInfo. The private bus was reportedly run by Dahlia Travel and Tours, a company whose record is filled with safety violations and several other fatal crashes, according to the New York Daily News. The intersection itself is also a notorious trouble spot, with five reported injuries related to crashes there so far this year, Gothamist reports.
Watching the video again, and considering buses are one of the few places where passengers can ride without seat belts or any other kind of restraints, it's amazing more people weren't killed.
Up close look at that tour bus that smashed into city bus in #queens. 3 killed, appears bus was wired for cameras inside and out. @ABC7NY pic.twitter.com/WSXJxZg2oQ
— Kemberly Richardson (@kemrichardson7) September 18, 2017
"It's a tragic morning here in Flushing, Queens. It's hard to compare to anything I've ever seen—the sheer destruction from the impact of this collision," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.