School bus-MTA bus crash injures 27
Two buses block a street Wednesday morning in Cedarhurst after a collision between an MTA bus and a school bus carrying preschool children. Authorities said at least two dozen passengers had minor injuries. (Oct. 12, 2011) Credit: Nick Stein
A bus carrying preschoolers was broadsided by an MTA bus early Wednesday in Cedarhurst, leaving more than two dozen passengers with minor injuries, officials said.
Fourteen of those injured were children, officials said.
A Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department spokesman said 27 people were treated. The MTA confirmed 12 passengers on its bus and the driver were injured.
Lawrence school district Superintendent Gary B. Schall said the children were taken to the hospital as a precaution but were released.
"Thank God no one was [seriously] hurt," he said. "Everybody was fine."
The crash about 9 a.m. was at the intersection of Central and Locust avenues, which is controlled by a three-way stop sign, officials said. The MTA bus, the N31/N32, was northbound on Central, while the school bus was westbound on Locust.
The school bus was operated by Independent Bus Corp. and was serving the district's Number 4 School on Wanser Avenue in Inwood, according to the parent of a child aboard the bus. The Inwood bus company did not return a call seeking comment.
Schall identified the driver as Joseph Pannell.
An MTA spokesman, Kevin Ortiz, confirmed that the bus owned by Long Island Bus, which is operated by the MTA, struck the school bus broadside, but told Newsday the cause of the accident was under investigation and said it had not been determined which vehicle had the right of way.
Carrie LaRocco, 40, of Cedarhurst, told Newsday that her daughter Jayla Jones, 4, who was on the school bus, suffered a cut under her left eye.
"She's got a boo-boo on her face," LaRocco said, holding her daughter after she was released from the hospital.
When asked how she was, Jayla replied: "Good."
"She was crying," her mother said. "She was scared."But, LaRocco said, "We had M&Ms already. We feel better."
People in the back of the MTA bus were thrown about by the force of the collision, said passenger Chris Lewis, 26, of Far Rockaway.
