A bus “flying” down a Queens street crashed into an MTA bus, killing three people and injuring 16 others, witnesses and authorities said.
A tour bus “flying” down a busy Queens street crashed into an MTA bus Monday, killing three people and injuring 16 others, witnesses and authorities said.
The Dahlia Travel and Tours bus slammed into the Q20 bus around 6:15 a.m. at Northern Blvd. and Main St., sending both vehicles careening onto the sidewalk and killing a 68-year-old pedestrian, officials said.
The 49-year-old driver of the Dahlia bus was among the dead. A 55-year-old man aboard the MTA bus also died.
“The tour bus was flying,” said Mike Ramos, 47, a construction superintendent who was sitting in his truck nearby.
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“When they collided, I felt the vibration.”
Ramos and a handful of cops were among the first on the scene, he said.
“There was people pinned under the front of the city bus. A lady was crying and screaming, ‘Get me out! Get me out!’” he said.
“It was just chaos…. One guy had his head split open. A lady was pinned under debris there, in front of the bus. There was a lot of people hurt, a lot of people hurt. It was crazy.”
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One victim died at the scene. A second died at Elmhurst Hospital. A third victim died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, authorities said.
The pedestrian died after being pinned in the crash, NYPD Assistant Chief Juanita Holmes said.
Six of the passengers remained in critical condition, one person was in serious but stable condition and nine others suffered minor injuries.
“We’ve had a really tragic morning in Flushing, Queens. Just shocking to see the scene over there. Hard to compare to anything I’ve ever seen, the sheer destruction from the impact of this collision,” Mayor de Blasio said at the crash site.
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“This is absolutely a very painful moment. We know one of those (victims) was simply walking down the sidewalk, maybe on their way to work, when out of nowhere this happens.”
He added that several victims were fighting for their lives.
The tour bus was traveling east on Northern Blvd. when it crashed into the MTA bus, which was making a right turn onto Northern Blvd. from Main St., Holmes said.
There were 15 passengers aboard the Q20, which weighs 12 tons.
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The impact sent the buses spinning onto the sidewalk, damaging two parked cars and smashing into a Kennedy Fried Chicken and T-Mobile store.
“That Dahlia bus must’ve hit it at such an impact that it spun. There’s no way that bus should be facing this way,” Sherrell Jordan, 42, said.
“That’s the problem — downtown Flushing is just too congested. We need these tour buses out of Flushing.”
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota echoed many witnesses stunned by the impact.
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“The buses spun around. That requires an enormous amount of speed. We need to maintain a certain level of low speed in the city of New York,” Lhota said.
The wrecked tour bus’s speedometer was stuck at 60 mph.
Photos from the scene showed the driver of the Q20 bus sitting on the sidewalk leaning against a light pole, in shock. Lhota said the driver, who has 10 years of experience, was in non-critical condition and speaking to investigators.
Another man was lying on his side next to the driver, receiving treatment from a firefighter.
A bloodied man was removed on a stretcher wearing a neck brace. Broken glass was scattered all over the block.
Young Lim, 62, said her husband was sitting in a silver Toyota SUV when the crash occurred behind him, throwing him forward.
“He hurt his neck, his back, his legs,” she said. She rushed to the scene after the crash and found her husband lying on the ground.
“He said, ‘Honey I can’t move, I’m in too much pain,’” she recalled.
Her husband was recovering at Elmhurst Hospital.
NYPD’s 109th Precinct, in a post on Twitter, wrote that the collision was “very serious” and caused heavy traffic delays.
The FDNY extinguished a small fire and shut off leaking gas in a nearby building that was struck by the ricocheting buses, officials said.
De Blasio said inspectors were still assessing damage to the building. Officials will also examine traffic safety measures at the intersection.
In February 2016, a Dahlia Travel and Tours bus bound for Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut rolled over during a snowstorm. Around two-dozen people were taken to the hospital. The tour company is based in Flushing, about six blocks from the crash scene.
With Nicole Hensley, Greg B. Smith, Dan Rivoli
