Bus crashes into scaffolding in Midtown
MIDTOWN (WABC) -- A bus crashed into a scaffolding on West 41st Street and 10th Avenue Thursday morning.
They could certainly call this trip to the city memorable.
44 passengers on the bus, tourists from Canada, were on their way to see a reality show in New Jersey when suddenly reality came crashing in.
"It was a beam falling into the window," a rider said.
Authorities say the bus driver hit a pothole on West 41st Street, lost control, and then slammed right into the scaffolding.
"So it was like a crash, and it was like Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" said Vinneca Antoine, a pedestrian.
Vinneca Antoine knows because she was walking and then running right under it.
"When it hit the scaffolding, the scaffolding started falling like dominoes so I was running while the scaffolding was collapsing behind me," Antoine said.
The bus was filled with families, including young children, and the door to the bus was initially blocked by all the debris.
"The challenge was removing 44 people with a very small opening and the people did very well, they remained in control," said Chief Anthony Devita, FDNY.
Two of them were transported to the hospital.
"Are you ok?" Eyewitness News asked.
"I guess so, I don't know," a passenger said.
The worst of it was shattered glass and that nerve racking feeling when everything comes crashing down.
"A lot of people hit their head. I had glass all over my back because of the beam that came in," said Julia Papas, a passenger, "And the scaffolding was falling on us."
The scaffolding will have to be stabilized before the bus is moved. Inspectors from the Department of Buildings will respond.
Witness Kate McCarthy, who lives next door to the abandoned building that was struck, described what she saw.
"I was on my way to work, and what I saw was, it was coming out of Port Authority, hit a pot hole, tried to make a turn, like in mid-air, and went straight into the scaffold, crashed right into it," she said. "There was a young lady right under the scaffold, she ran just in time and got right out and went right into our building."
The bus is privately operated by a company called Optimum Ride.
