(New York) A coach carrying around fifty tourists returning from the Niagara falls, including children, overturned on Friday on a highway in the northern New York State, killing five and dozens of injured.
Most of the vehicle passengers are of Indian, Philippine or Chinese origin, said the state police.
The facts took place near Buffalo, near the Canadian border, in the Great Lakes region.
“It is believed that the driver was distracted, lost control,” surreated “before finishing his race in a ditch, said in the early evening a police officer in New York State, Andre Ray, a priori dismissing mechanical failure or a conduct under toxic substances.
Among the many injured on the spot, none is no longer in danger of death, said the policeman.
8 helicopters committed
“It is a tourist coach that came from the Niagara falls towards what we think we are New York City, with more than 50 passengers on board, women, children also,” said James O’Callaghan, a state police spokesman.
Photo Libby March, Buffalo News provided by Associated Press
The accident occurred on motorway I-90 near Pembroke, about 40 kilometers east of Buffalo.
“The coach was circulating east just before the release of Pembroke” when the driver “lost control, went into the central media (…) and ended up in the gap,” he continued.
Passengers had to be disturbed when others had been “ejected” from the vehicle. Translators have been sent on the spot to be able to communicate with injured tourists.
The bus driver is alive and “is well”, according to the police, who questioned him.
An official of the County Hospital Center of Erié joined to the phone by AFP, Peter Cutler, reported 21 adult patients transported on site.
A total of eight helicopters was mobilized to transport some of the injured, including two children, according to Margaret Ferrentino, president of Mercy Flight (rescue transport), also contacted by AFP.
According to the NBC chain, no child is among the dead.
On site, the images relayed by the media showed a coach lying on the side of the roadside, very damaged.
Deploring on the social network X “a tragic accident”, the state governor Kathy Hochul said that her services were coordinated “closely with the New York State police and local officials working to rescue and provide assistance to all those involved”.
