Five people were injured this morning when a bus bound for New York City rear-ended a tractor trailer at 5:35 a.m. on the New York Thruway. Lohud.com reports that the accident happened about two miles north of Exit 15A in Sloatsburg (voted the #2 place to live on the East Coast by Money Magazine!). There were 17 passengers on board at the time of the crash, and the five injured riders had to be "extricated" from the bus, which was operated by New York Trailways.
The bus driver’s cabin "was pretty well smashed up," according to CBS 2, along with the front left corner and side of the bus. Sgt. Michael Kopp tells Lohud.com that four people were taken to area hospitals, but their injuries were not considered life-threatening. The remaining passengers were transferred to, gulp, another New York Trailways bus, to continue their harrowing journey to New York City.
The crash is just the latest in a long series of bus accidents of varying degrees of severity. In March, 15 people were killed when a bus carrying gamblers from the Mohegan Sun to Chinatown flipped and struck a metal pole, which sheared open the bus. That same month, a "Super Luxury Tour" headed from Chinatown to Pennsylvania crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike, killing two people, including the bus driver. In the wake of these accidents, Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand co-sponsored a bill that would require bus drivers to receive training. As it stands now, federal regulations do not require drivers to have training.
