#FDNY members on scene of a serious accident involving two buses at 136-04 Northern Blvd #Queens pic.twitter.com/CPVdXDCmPn
— FDNY (@FDNY) September 18, 2017
A collision between a MTA bus and a Dahlia charter bus at a busy Queens, New York intersection left three dead and over a dozen people injured on Monday. According to the MTA, the Dahlia bus hit the MTA bus with enough speed that both buses “spun around.” The vehicles hopped the curb and slammed into nearby storefronts. One pedestrian, the Dahlia bus driver, and one MTA passenger were killed as a result. A witness described the scene as chaotic as survivors screamed for help and shuffled around in a daze while waiting for first responders.
The sixteen who were injured, including six critically, were taken to nearby hospitals as investigators tried to piece together what happened.
The crash is not the first time that a Dahlia bus has been involved in fatal traffic incident. In February 2016, one of their buses rolled over on a Connecticut highway en routed to a casino, leaving one dead and 36 people injured. Multiple lawsuits were filed as a result of that crash. The company’s drivers have also been routinely cited for speeding and other traffic violations, including three times this year, creating a pattern of unsafe driving.
According to DNA Info, the intersection where the collision occurred, Main Street and Northern Boulevard in Flushing, has seen 33 crashes with injuries since 2009 leading some to call for safety improvements in the area.
“We’re certainly going to look at this intersection, but first we need to know what happened here,” Mayor Bill De Blasio said.
(Via DNA Info & CBS New York)