An accident between a Niagara Frontier Transit Authority bus, a sport utility vehicle and a passenger vehicle has injured ten people and sent several to local hospitals with serious injuries. The incident took place on a Thursday evening at 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of Williams Road and Niagara Falls Boulevard near the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. According to police, one of the vehicles, a 1999 Volvo carrying three children along with the driver, entered the intersection against a red light and was struck by the bus, which was traveling with the green light. The struck vehicle then hit the sport utility vehicle that had been behind it at the light.
Several ambulances from local hospitals arrived at the scene in order to help the injured. The struck vehicle held three children; one fourteen-year old girl was said to have been seriously injured and was placed in intensive care at Women & Children’s Hospital. The other two children were taken to Women & Children’s and Mount St. Mary Hospital. No information about their current condition has been released at the request of the family. The driver was reported to be fine. The driver and children in the second vehicle were not seriously injured, nor was the bus driver, whose vehicle was empty. A total of four people were transported to area hospitals, while the six other injuries were treated on the scene by emergency responders. All three vehicles involved in the accident were towed from the scene, and the roads were closed for almost two hours to allow investigators to clear and assess the scene and for the injured to be treated.
The road conditions on the scene were too icy to allow the Mercy Flight that was called to fly, and authorities indicated that the weather conditions were likely a factor in the accident. According to Bergholz Fire Company Chief Mark Stevens, who was on the scene, “They’re very lucky. It could have been a lot more serious. Originally when we first got here all ten people were going and it was more than cuts and bruises, sounded like seat belt lacerations from getting hit, obviously we had to extricate one person so it wasn’t just your normal auto accident.”
The accident investigation is ongoing and no charges were filed at the time of the acci