• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Three From Montreal Among Dead in Crash of Bus in New York State

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 18:00 CDT

By DENE MOORE

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (CP) - Rosy Tran-Du-Trieu remembers sitting quietly behind the driver of Greyhound bus No. 4014 as it made its way from New York City to Montreal along Interstate 87.

Then in an instant, the 18-year-old from Paris was suddenly flung from her seat and thrown around the bus with 52 other people as the vehicle hurtled through a guardrail and flipped over and over down the highway.

The accident Monday night killed five people on the bus, including three from Montreal and the driver.

"I looked at the driver and I don't know why, he turned suddenly to the left," Tran-Du-Trieu said Tuesday from her hospital bed at the Elizabethtown Community Health Centre, about 120 kilometres south of Montreal.

"After that, I don't know - I found myself in the air," said Tran-Du-Trieu, who had cuts and bruises and a large bandage over her chin and neck.

"I was outside the bus and nobody was with me. There was an ambulance."

Tran-Du-Trieu called worried family members she had been planning to visit in Montreal.

"I'm fine," she assured them over the telephone Tuesday.

Killed were Tambadou Souleymane, 16, and an unidentified 34-year-old man and 69-year-old woman, all from Montreal. The identities of the man and woman were not released pending notification of next of kin.

Also killed were bus driver Ronald Burgess, 52, of Central Islip, N.Y., and Antonide Dorce, 81, of Hempstead, N.Y.

The other 48 passengers on the bus were all injured, but authorities could not say how many of them were Canadian residents.

New York State Police said they believe a blown tire may have caused the crash.

Witness accounts led investigators to believe that the tire may have caused the bus to veer out of control near Westport, N.Y.

"We had an eyewitness who was also northbound on the (highway) at the time of the accident who heard a noise and looked over, and it appeared to him that one of the tires had failed on the front end of the bus," said Maj. Richard Smith Jr. of New York State Police.

An emergency official credited the bus driver for the "amazing" fact that there weren't more fatalities.

"I think the bus driver maintained control of the bus for some distance ... and decreased the speed of the bus before it rolled," said Don Jaquish, deputy director of emergency services for Essex County, N.Y.

"I think he just tried to keep the bus upright, and it was at a very steep incline."

"He travelled quite a distance. You could see the tire marks."

More than 100 rescue workers, firefighters and paramedics were called to the scene.

Many of the surviving passengers were "in a state of shock" when rescuers arrived minutes after a 911 call around 6:45 p.m., Jaquish said.

Ray Thatcher, director of emergency services for Essex County, said the crash site "looked like a battlefield."

"Several passengers were thrown from the vehicle as it rolled," Thatcher said. "They were up to 75 feet or more from the bus. There were people everywhere."

The Jaws of Life and special cutters were used to extract passengers from the mangled wreck of the bus, which came to rest upside down over a ditch in the highway meridian.

It took 90 minutes to clear the injured from the scene, but it wasn't until after 2 a.m. that rescuers removed the last of the five bodies from the shattered vehicle.

Personal effects were scattered inside and outside the bus, and a carpet of broken glass glinted under floodlights that allowed rescuers to work through the night.

The injured ranged from an infant to an 81-year-old, Smith said.

"As far as I know, the infant is fine," he said.

Greyhound spokesman David Blair said Tuesday the bus was inspected before its departure from New York City and has regular inspections.

"When the bus left the station, it was in perfect condition," Blair said.

Officials at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y., said 37 survivors were brought to the hospital, and 22 were treated and released. Five other passengers were brought to Montreal General Hospital, with two of them listed in critical condition.

Interpreters were available for some of the victims, which included people from Canada, the United States, Japan, England and France.

The bus departed New York City at 1 p.m. and made stops in Albany and Saratoga Springs in New York state before the crash, said Greyhound spokeswoman Anna Folmnsbee.

Greyhound has set up an information hotline for families and friends of passengers at 1-800-972-4583.

Source: Canadian Press

More News in this Category