Nine people were injured on Monday morning, March 10th, when a school bus was in a violent collision with a New York City Boro Cab. A surveillance camera mounted on the outside of a nearby building captured the entire scene as onlookers rushed to help the special needs children who were onboard the bus at the time. The accident took place at the intersection of Halsey Street and Marcy Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section.
According to reports, the taxi cab driver was attempting to cross the intersection and had inched the nose of his cab out despite having a red light when the yellow bus barreled through the intersection and struck the side of his vehicle. The cab was sent hurtling through the street and into a light pole while the bus flipped onto its side. There were six children on board the bus in addition to a bus matron and the bus driver. All eight were injured in addition to the driver of the cab. Officials said that all were taken to Kings County Hospital and Woodhull Medical Center for treatment of their injuries.
John Denmark was a witness to the accident, and said, “They were completely hysterical. I mean they were screaming, yelling, jumping around… they had no idea what was going on or how they were going to get out of there.” He and several other witnesses rushed over to help the students, who the New York City Department of Education say were all special needs children who were all nonverbal and autistic.
“Once we got the door open, I just immediately jumped in the bus and just started trying to get people out as fast as possible because I saw blood on the ceiling of the bus, so I didn’t know if that had been a child or if that had been one of the adults.
The students were being transported to two different schools: PS53K@I296K and the Academy for Environmental Leadership. According to residents, there are many accidents at the intersection because people drive too quickly and fail to obey the traffic signal, but this accident was particularly upsetting because it involved children.
Police indicated that they would be issuing a citation against the cab driver for having run a red light.