2 Double-Decker Buses Crash Into Times Square, 14 Injured

Two double-decker buses crashed into New York’s Times Square Tuesday afternoon. The collision happened on the East side of the TKTS booth at Times Square, as WABC-TV in New York reports. The impact resulted in downing a traffic light pole into the plaza from a Gray Line and a CitySights bus.

A witness tells WABC-TV that she saw a tour bus speeding on 7th Avenue. She quickly grabbed her daughter before the bus crashed into the other one.

“The bus came at a very high rate of speed and landed right near my daughter,” says the witness.

14 passengers were injured in the collision and taken to Mount Sinai Roosevelt and Bellevue Hospitals. Eight of those injured were pedestrians, with one being a child.

According to Los Angeles Times, a New York City Fire Department spokesman explains that the Manhattan crash involved “contact with some sort of light pole.” In the report updating the status of those injured from the double-decker bus crash at Times Square, three people sustained serious but non life-threatening injuries while 11 had minor injuries. Many of those injured are expected to be released later Tuesday.

Neither of the bus drivers were injured in the crash.

FDNY got a call at 3:22 pm about the collision. Some images on Twitter are posted here of the accident. NBC 14 New York reveals that the pedestrians injured in the crash were mostly struck by the light pole or flying debris.

“We are very, very fortunate there weren’t many more injuries,” says a FDNY official.

FDNY EMS Deputy Chief John Wieland tells CBS Local in New York:

“Everybody was stable. Everybody’s going to recover from this. Thank God that nobody was really badly hurt.”

A tour guide aboard one of the buses was thrown forward, lodging her head in the dashboard. Officials say she’ll be okay. At the time of the incident, neither of the buses were occupied with tourists.

Another woman at the scene says:

“It happened so fast that like, it’s not like we could run away from here, because we’re all kind of like, trapped. I don’t know if the people that were, like, sitting there ended up being OK.”

Dozens of police cars, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles remain at the Times Square crash site. An investigation into the double-decker bus crash is being conducted, but is reportedly causing major delays during evening rush-hour.

[Photo Credit: John Price via CBS Local New York]