Feds: Bus went 78 mph before Bronx crash

An interim federal report said Friday that the casino tour bus that crashed in the Bronx last month killing 15 people was going its maximum speed of 78 mph just before the accident, and there was no evidence it hit another vehicle before it flipped on its side.

The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board laid out the basic known facts of the accident and did not reach any conclusions about the probable cause.

It did reiterate that investigators could not substantiate the claim of the driver, Ophadell Williams of Brooklyn, that his vehicle had been clipped by a passing tractor-trailer, causing him to veer sideways.

"No evidence was found that would correspond to a potential area of contact between the bus and the combination vehicle," the NTSB report said.

Williams' lawyer, Sean Rooney, maintained Friday that the crash was caused by a tractor-trailer swerving into the lane in front of the bus. "Whether there was incidental contact or not is really irrelevant," Rooney told The Associated Press.

Williams has not been charged.

The NTSB said it was analyzing data from the onboard Detroit Diesel Electronic Control module, which measures the performance of the bus engine and limits its maximum speed.

That data, showed the bus was operating at varying speeds. It was going at the engine's 78 mph maximum 45 seconds before the crash, but then decreased speed.

The bus, operated by World Wide Tours of Brooklyn, was on the return leg of a trip to Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut when it crashed on the southbound New England Thruway near the Bronx border at 5:45 a.m. on March 12. The speed limit there is 55 mph.

The NTSB hopes to complete its investigation within 12 months of the accident, agency spokesman Peter Knudson said.