F*******o
发帖数: 287 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: FlyingBro (北美飞哥), 信区: Military
标 题: Official: Riders say NYC bus crash driver swerved
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Sun Mar 13 21:40:07 2011, 美东)
NEW YORK – Passengers and witnesses to a horrific crash that sheared the
top off a bus and killed 14 people told investigators that the driver's
account of getting clipped by a tractor-trailer didn't match up to what they
felt and saw before the vehicle slid off the road and into a sign pole.
Driver Ophadell Williams had told police that his World Wide Travel bus was
hit just as it crossed the New York City line early Saturday on a trip from
the Mohegan Sun casino in in Connecticut.
But passengers said Williams had already swerved at times to the right for
no reason before the accident, a law enforcement official said Sunday. The
official wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the probe and spoke on
condition of anonymity.
The bus was returning to Manhattan's Chinatown after a quick overnight trip
to the casino. The official said that passengers said they didn't feel
anything hit them and that other motorists on Interstate 95 said they didn't
see the bus get hit. The official said police spoke to the tractor-trailer
driver, who said he was following the bus.
Williams remained hospitalized in stable condition Sunday and has not
commented publicly. His family could not be reached.
As many as 20 passengers were treated at hospitals following the accident.
Nine remained hospitalized, including the bus driver, at St. Barnabas
Hospital and Jacobi Medical Center. Most were in critical condition.
Officials at Jacobi were still trying to identify one passenger, an Asian
man in his 50s, spokeswoman Barbara DeIorio said.
"He's very injured. He's not able to communicate yet," she said, adding that
the man was in the surgical intensive care unit.
The 14 victims — eight men and six women — all died of blunt force trauma,
said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner's
office. She said the office was working with family members to identify
them.
The National Transportation Safety Board has interviewed two passengers from
the bus, but it hasn't spoken to the bus driver or the driver of the truck,
Vice Chairman Christopher Hart said at a news conference late Sunday.
He said the investigation was still in its early stages, but the NTSB plans
to talk to the bus company to see what kind of fatigue management the
company has in place. Investigators will also look into the casino's records
to see whether the driver checked into a room there.
The NTSB will analyze three devices: a camera mounted in the bus facing the
passengers; an engine control module, which may tell how fast the bus was
going; and a GPS tracking device from the tractor-trailer, said Hart.
Some of the 31 passengers were still asleep when the bus crashed at 5:35 a.m
. Saturday. The bus scraped along the guardrail for 300 feet, toppled and
crashed into the support pole for a highway sign indicating the exit for the
Hutchinson Parkway. The pole knifed through the bus front to back along the
window line, peeling the roof off all the way to the back tires.
The bus was one of scores that travel daily between Chinatown and the
Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in southeastern Connecticut.
Mohegan Sun, in Uncasville, Conn., has estimated a fifth of its business
comes from Asian spending and caters to Chinese-American gamblers. Its
website has a Chinese-language section offering gaming and bus promotions.
The trips between New York City's Chinatown and regional casinos are popular
, said Eddie Chiu, who runs the Lin Sing Association, a community outreach
group.
He said in the past three years, there have been a handful of serious
accidents involving discount buses taking people from New York's Chinese
community to casinos.
"The drivers tell me that they're often very tired," he said, adding that
salaries are low and drivers work long hours.
Eric Brodie, a spokesman for the operator of the bus, World Wide Travel,
said company officials met with NTSB and state police investigators and were
cooperating fully. He declined to comment further.
The accident tossed passengers all around the bus, with most people hurled
to the front of the bus on impact, authorities said.
Many of the passengers on the bus were Chinatown residents. They ranged in
age from 20 to 50, officials said.
Chinatown community organizations offered to help victims' families cope
with their loss.
Oanfa Quan, who runs a company that provides wigs and medical prostheses,
said she was working with the Lin Sing Association to provide wigs in case
some of the victims need them for burial.
"Usually the family wants it for their own peace of mind," she said. "Even
if the casket is closed, they still want to know that their loved one looks
the way they were prior to the accident." |
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