NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Eight people were injured after an MTA articulated bus careened off an overpass and was left dangling over a roadway near the Washington Bridge in the Bronx on Thursday night.
The accordion-like Bx35 bus was approaching the Cross Bronx Expressway and turning towards an entrance ramp shortly after 11 p.m. But the bus missed the ramp at University Avenue and the front-half smashed through a railing and fell to the pavement 50 feet below.
Images showed one part of the bus still resting on the bridge, with the other half dangling nearly completely vertical, with its smashed front end resting on the highway ramp below.
The driver and seven passengers suffered non-life-threatening injuries, most of them minor. One passenger was more seriously hurt than the others but will survive. All were taken to hospitals.
“The bus fell approximately 50 feet onto the access road. The patients suffered injuries consistent with a fall from such a great height,” Deputy Fire Chief Paul Hopper said.
MTA Bus President Craig Cipriano said, “Preliminary indications are that they bus operator was very helpful, very heroic, was able to help customers get off the bus to safety.”
The bus had been successfully pulled onto the overpass by 6:05 a.m.
MTA Chief Safety and Security Officer Patrick Warren released a statement about the incident: “The MTA’s goal is to have the safest transportation system in the nation, and when an incident like this occurs we take it very seriously. We are conducting a full investigation and will implement lessons learned in order to prevent it from happening again. We are certain this was a terrifying incident for those customers on the bus. Our hearts go out to them with hope that they can recover quickly.”
