Greyhound Bus From NYC Crashes Upstate

A Greyhound bus making its way from New York City to Montreal drove off the Interstate near the Canadian border, falling down an embankment and rolling over at least twice. Five passengers were believed to have been killed and many others were injured. The bus was the 1PM from the Port Authority, carrying many tourists back to Montreal; the NY Times reported that even though some injured passengers wanted to continue their way to Montreal, there were difficulties since many passports were still on the bus.

As of this morning, investigators have not found the bus driver's body and won't be able to determine the cause of the crash until the bus is righted. Greyhound says the bus passed its annual federal inspection recently. The accident occurred near Elizabethtown, which is 100 miles north of Albany and not too far from the Canadian border.

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By Jen Chung in News on August 29, 2006 8:29 AM

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party bus

Wow, great article, I really appreciate your thought process and having it explained properly, thank you!

guest

I've been working in transportation business for a while, mostly in

NJ Car Service, few month for Montclair Limousine and Livingston Limousine. Drivers are likely to overestimate their ability to stay awake. Most of the time accidents are related to sleeping driver. But what happened to the driver's body?

guest

I've been working in transportation business for a while, mostly in

NJ Car Service, few month for Montclair Limousine and Livingston Limousine. Drivers are likely to overestimate their ability to stay awake. Most of the time accidents are related to sleeping driver. But what happened to the drivers body?

guest

I've been working in transportation business for a while, mostly in

NJ Car Service, few month for

Montclair Limousine and

Livingston Limousine. Drivers are

likely to overestimate their ability to stay awake. Most of the time accidents

are related to sleeping driver.

But what happened to the drivers body?

guest

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Ginger

I was supposed to be on that bus.... my holiday plans got changed, and if they hadn't of i would of been on the way home to Ontario, Canada from Saratoga Springs... I had taken that route many times Ontario/Montreal/Albany...for me it was easier on my budget to travel by bus (left more money for shopping)than to travel by train or plane, because i made that trip 3-4 times a yr... i feel bad for the families of the deceased, and my thoughts and prayers go out to any of those on that bus...

just saying

The latest news is reporting that a front wheel blew out which caused the driver to lose control. Huh? Doesn't Greyhound do routine maintenance to check for this kind of common problem? Sounds like someone dropped the ball here.

A lot of people may not be aware of it, but NYC gets a lot of visitors from Quebec province--many of whom seem to arrive here by bus. I always see those obvious buses with French wording and Quebec license plates around Grand Central on Saturdays. Very sad that there were so many casualties.

x-new yorker

You're shittin me! amtrack is slower than greyhound going to and from montreal/nyc? I'd probably lean toward the train anyway--it's so much more comfortable than being squashed on a bus with a bunch of smelly people (from my past greyhound experience.)

bumbaclaut

Isn't it odd that they can not find the driver’s body? Where are the Cadaver dogs?

bumbaclaut

Larry: You obviously don't get out much. There is nothing wrong with a bus ride to Canada. The leaves are beginning to change their colors. It is the time of year for tours up state and all points north. Get a life. Where do you live? You sound sheltered. You sound like you live in a "fools paradise." Check out the specials Larr.

Saratoga

13 - they said on the radio this morning that the bus had just left the Saratoga Springs rest stop, but in my experience, the driver doesn't change there.

Larry

What kind of fool takes a BUS to Montreal??? Idiots.

oh canada

What's the "Northway"?

A train ride back when they had a smoking car and a bar car was fun for short trips of 6 hrs or less.

Do they have wi-fi on Amtrak? at least, you may get cell phone service.

Did the bus make some stops along the way and changed drivers? I know when I traveled down south we made a stop in Wash DC and Richmond VA.

The driver was also speeding according to my GPS. It was in the 80's.

Laura

Drbong: Call me crazy, but I thought taking a bus was better than having 50 extra cars on the road. In the end, public transportation is public transportation. No doubt this country needs high speed rail though.

drbong

I'd rather spend 8 hours on a train than 5 hours on the bus. I've driven to MTL as well as riding the train, and they don't compare. If I don't have half a day to blow, I'll speed up the Northway. I agree that it's a damn shame. What can you do, though? We love our cars in the US, or something.

Samantha T

K - I see your point, though I must admit to being irritated by Jen writing about this tragedy and not taking three seconds to check her frigging spelling. It's lazy and disrespectful.

Hong Kong Bus Rider

Hey, they got pressure.

Wo yo yali, ni yo yali.

an Adirondacker

drbong -

The Adirondacker is slower than the bus. But I attribute that to poor track maintenance, which causes the train to slow down to 30 mph at spots. Also, there is only one train that runs in the morning, and it is always sold out on weekends.

All in all, though, I think the train is a much more pleasant experience than the bus, since the bus is almost always packed to capacity, and you can at least hit the bar on the train. It's a fucking shame they let a line that could generate so much money for Amtrak go to shit...

an Adirondacker

Kojak,

I imagine the trip to Montreal is over 8 hours, mostly due to Customs. I get out at Plattsburgh, which is the last stop before Montreal.

They were fortunate to wreck near Elizabethtown. If it would have happened a little south of there, like around North Hudson, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't found until morning. There are also some nasty drops along the median side of the road - perhaps as far down as 15'.

One of the big problems around that part of the Adirondacks is that there is absolutely no cell phone reception. They used to have a system of emergency phones that were powered by solar panels, but god knows if they still work...

drbong

... just think, if they took Amtrak's Adirondack, they'd be home by now.

And of course our government thinks that bus transport is far superior to trains. Whatever.