More than two dozen people were hospitalized Thursday night after a tour bus and an MTA bus collided at a Manhattan intersection, the Fire Department reported.
The incident happened at about 7:18 p.m. on July 6 at the corner of 1st Avenue and East 23rd Street near Peter Cooper Village.
According to the MTA, an X27 express bus — which operates between Manhattan and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn — was traveling eastbound on East 23rd Street heading for the FDR Drive when it was broadsided by a double-decker tour bus that may have blown through a red light while traveling northbound on 1st Avenue.
Both buses were relatively full at the time of the collision, according to FDNY Deputy Chief Kevin Murphy of Division 1 and Deputy Chief Paul Hopper of EMS Division 1. The MTA reported that 26 passengers and the driver were on board the X27 at the time.
The responding units worked quickly to rescue individuals from both vehicles, using ladders and ropes at times to get individuals trapped on the top of the tour bus after one of the egresses had been damaged in the wreck.
“Units quickly put up some ladders, and used some ropes to lower the injured people down,” Murphy explained. “They did a really nice job. All the units worked well together.”
As of 10 a.m. Friday morning, the Fire Department reported that 32 individuals had been taken to local hospitals for treatment of various injuries; 67 people were medically evaluated following the crash. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Hopper said. The injuries varied from minor cuts and bruises to fractures.
“We’re all quite fortunate it was not much worse,” he noted.
The cause of the crash remains unknown and under investigation, Fire Department sources said. MTA New York City Transit President Richard Davey, however, laid the blame for the crash on the tour bus operator, which — based on preliminary reports — apparently ran a red light.
“It’s certainly what our operator reported, some of our customers reported, and as I understand it, some of the customers on the tour bus reported,” Davey said. “He was proceeding down 23rd [Street] here to get on the FDR [Drive] with a green light. At that point, the tour bus coming up 1st Avenue t-boned the bus. And as I understand it, it was going so fast it actually hit it twice. It bounced back, and bounced back in again to our bus.”
Davey said the driver of the X27 bus, a 15-year veteran, was not seriously hurt in the crash.
This story was updated on July 7 at 8:20 a.m.
This is a developing story; check with amNY.com for further updates.
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