BRONX TOUR BUS CRASH KILLS 14 PEOPLE AFTER THE BUS GOT CUT IN HALF BY A POLE!

More than a dozen people were killed in a horrific crash early Saturday when a discount bus flipped on a Bronx highway and careened into a metal traffic pole, officials said.

The top of the World Wide bus, which was returning to the city from the Mohegan Sun casino, was sheared off when it hit the sign alongside the New England Thruway just after 5:45 a.m.

Officials said at least 14 people died and another 20 were hospitalized after the sickening impact - which may have been caused by a hit-and-run driver.

"The bus was cut into two parts by the pole," said a survivor, Victor.

"I saw a lot of death," said Victor, as he sat dazed in the emergency room at Jacobi Medical Center. "People were crying. People were screaming."

Investigators said the bus was traveling south on I-95 to Midtown when it crashed.

Cops were searching for a tractor-trailer believed to have made contact with the bus in the moments before the deadly crash.

The bus appeared to careen out of control, slam into a guardrail and then overturn on the highway near Exit 14, the ramp for the Hutchinson River Pkwy.

It appeared to skid on its side for about 250 yards and crashed directly into the massive traffic sign - and the steel pole tore through the bus' windows.

The vehicle did not come to a rest until the pole had ripped through almost the entire length of the bus, destroying its interior. The sturdy pole, which supports a large highway sign, is built to withstand strong winds and not give way when struck.

"I opened my eyes - I was on the ground," said Victor, who was sleeping in the moments before the wreck. "I saw a big piece of metal \[and\] the bus was in two parts."

"I saw people split open. It was awful," he said. "I tried to help. I crawled out through the emergency window in the back."

Scores of emergency vehicles rushed to the grisly accident scene, and firefighters clambered over the crumpled bus, desperate to find survivors. Injured passengers, some of whom were critically hurt, were rushed to area hospitals, including St. Barnabas and Jacobi Medical Center.

"I pulled over and I saw people running with their phones in their hands," said Homer Martinez, 56, a limo driver who stopped his car and ran over to help at the gruesome scene.

"I saw three people backing up from the bus and trying to hold another lady back," Martinez said, "and they said 'You don't want to see this.'"

"You could see bags, pieces of clothes lying around," he said. "I felt horrible."

Police sources said the bus left the Connecticut casino at 3:45 a.m. and was heading to drop off passengers in Chinatown.

"Around 6 a.m., it just got crazy, crazy," said a man waiting in the Jacobi emergency room who gave his name as Earl. "All the patients in there were cleared out and they began wheeling all these people in."

"It was like a movie," he said.

Officials said 32 passengers were onboard the bus at the time of the crash. Eleven people were seriously hurt, including the driver, while eight more suffered minor injuries.

The bus was carrying a group of gamblers who each paid $15 for the round-trip journey, which left Chinatown at 7:45 p.m. Friday and then departed Mohegan Sun eight hours later.

It appeared the passengers sitting at the rear of the bus had a better chance of survival, Victor said.

"I am lucky," he said. "I am happy today because I live."

The website for World Wide bus, which is based in Brooklyn, says it offers service between Manhattan - at the corner of Eighth Ave. and W. 31st St - and Cambridge and Newton, Massachusetts, two Boston suburbs.

The busy highway's southbound lanes were completely shut down in the aftermath of the wreck as investigators - including Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly - pored over the wreck. Firefighters were using long pieces of wood to prop up the bus so the vehicle would not tip over.

Because the bus and truck apparently hit just over the line in Westchester County, State Police are the lead agency in the probe, officials said.


SOURCE