New York, Aug 23: At least five people have been killed when a tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls with 54 passengers, including from India and China, crashed on a highway outside Buffalo, according to media reports.
The crash occurred on the New York State Thruway about 48 kilometres east of Buffalo at 12.22 pm (local time) on Friday, Trooper James O’Callaghan, a spokesman for the State Police, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
Police have not yet released the names of those who died, but said an earlier report that one of the deceased was a child was incorrect, according to The Buffalo News.
The crash forced the closing of the Thruway in both directions. The eastbound lanes, which had remained closed into the evening, were reopened around 8.30 pm, about eight hours after the crash, and the westbound lanes reopened just after 5 pm, the report said.
Major Andre J Ray said that five people were pronounced dead at the scene while many are still hospitalised. However, there were no other patients in a “life-threatening status”, he added.
The bus, carrying passengers aged from 1 to 74, was operated by M&Y Tour Inc. out of Staten Island, Ray said.
Investigators have ruled out mechanical failure and impairment or intoxication of the driver as causes of the crash, Buffalo News reported.
State Police said several witnesses saw the bus lose control, enter the median, cross the southern shoulder and overturn.
Trooper O’Callaghan during a news conference said every passenger on the bus had at least some sort of “cut, bruise or abrasion as an injury”.
Most of the passengers were from India, China and the Philippines, and many were not wearing seatbelts, he added.
Trooper O’Callaghan said that the bus was “extremely damaged” and that many passengers had been ejected from the vehicle when it crashed. The driver was “alive and well,” he added.
He said that the driver had lost control of the bus for “unknown reasons”.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in a statement posted on X, said that she had been “briefed on the tragic tour bus accident” and that her office was “coordinating closely” with the State Police and other agencies that were responding to the crash. (PTI)
