9 Hurt When School Bus Overturns In Brooklyn Crash With Taxi
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Surveillance cameras were rolling Monday afternoon as a cab and a school bus collided in Brooklyn, the force causing the bus full of children to flip.
Nine people – including six children – were injured the accident, which occurred around 3:40 p.m. Monday at Halsey Street and Marcy Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
As CBS 2's Tracee Carrasco reported, the dramatic video shows the green New York City Boro cab inching through the intersection, followed by the exact moment of impact when the taxi collided with this yellow mini-school bus full of children.
The impact sent the taxi flying into a light pole and flipped the school bus over on to its side with the terrified children trapped inside.
Three adults and six children were hurt, officials said. They were transported to Woodhull Medical Center and Kings County Hospital. None was seriously injured.
"They were completely hysterical. I mean, they were screaming, yelling, jumping around," said witness John Denmark. "They had no idea what was going on or how they were going to get out of there."
Denmark was on the street corner when the accident happened. He was one of several witnesses who didn't think twice to rush over and help.
"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," he said, "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."
Area resident Milton Rosa also stepped in to assist.
"I went inside, ripped the back truck door open, ran in there – most of the kids were already taking the seat belt out and pulling them out," Rosa told CBS 2. "I took them out of there, one by one, and then some more people came by and helped me out with the rest of the kids."
As 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported, the New York City Department of Education said six special needs children were on the mini-bus -- all nonverbal and autistic. The students attend two different schools -- PS53K@I296K and the Academy for Environmental Leadership, education officials said.
While residents said accidents happen at the dangerous intersection all the time, this time they are even more upset that children were involved.
"In a situation like this, there's always accidents here in this corner – always, always accidents," Rosa said. "But we can't do nothing about it, because the way these people be riding through here, speeding and everything, there's nothing we can do."
As police spent most of the evening, trying to figure out what happened, these Good Samaritans were just happy to be in the right place at the right time.
"We are all responsible to one another," Denmark said.
Sources told CBS 2 News Monday night that citations were pending against the cab driver for running a red light.
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