8 hurt after MTA bus crashes into pole in Flushing
FLUSHING, Queens (WABC) -- An MTA bus crashed into a light pole in Flushing, Queens, early Friday morning, leaving eight people injured and narrowly missing two others waiting at a bus stop.
It happened at 57th Road and Main Street at 6 a.m. on Friday.
Surveillance video obtained by Eyewitness News showed the city bus making its way on Main Street, and as it crossed over the intersection, the bus jumped the curb.
The impact was so great it tore down the street sign pole that was attached to the traffic light, ripping it all from the concrete. The traffic yellow light left bounced up top.
"I was all the way in the back and all of a sudden the bus hit the curb, I guess, jumped the curb, I went this way and that way and banged into the side of the bus," said bus passenger Ken Baur.
Seven passengers and the bus driver were taken to New York-Presbyterian Queens for non-life threatening injuries.
The 25-year-old driver of the Q20 bus said he had a green light and misjudged the curb at the bus stop.
But after investigators downloaded video from the bus's onboard cameras, it is now believed he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
He is a probationary driver who started last October.
The driver does not appear to have suffered a medical condition or was otherwise distracted.
The MTA pulled the driver out of service pending the investigation. He will undergo testing, which is standard.
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