NEW YORK (AP) — An accident involving a double-decker tour bus and a city bus in Manhattan Thursday night sent 18 people to hospitals for treatment, fire and EMS officials said.
Reports of a major car crash came in shortly after 7 p.m., said Deputy Chief Kevin Murphy of the New York Fire Department’s Division 1 Unit. Emergency personnel found what he described as a serious accident, with the larger bus adding to the complications.
“We had some minor challenges on the double-decker bus — getting through the windows, getting people out,” said Paul Hopper, deputy chief of New York EMS Division 1.
Ladders and ropes were required to lower some people due to damage to the bus, Murphy said.
Many of the injured have cuts, bruises, scrapes, as well as suspected fractures and injuries to the head and neck, Hopper said.
“None have life-threatening injuries,” Hopper said, adding that 63 other passengers requested evaluations by a doctor who was on site.
Hopper and Murphy said they couldn’t speculate on what led up to the crash.
“I heard the lady next to me scream, so I looked up and saw this bus heading our way,” Ishrak Jahan, a bus passenger, told CBS News New York. “I just saw glass everywhere for a second. Honestly, it was like I was in a movie… I saw blood. I immediately called 911.”
