New York, March 16: A Luxury bus from New York City’s Chinatown to Philadelphia crashed last night on one of the most heavily trafficked highways in the US, killing the driver and another person, police said.
The driver, a 50-year-old Taiwanese national, was thrown through the windshield, and several passengers were badly injured in the New Jersey Turnpike crash, state police Sgt Stephen Jones said.
The other person who was killed was a male passenger, who died after being transported to a hospital in New Brunswick. About 40 passengers were sent to area hospitals, and at least five were in a trauma unit, Jones said. Police believe there were 44 or 45 people on the bus, which was a private charter, Jones said.
The one-vehicle crash happened just days after a bus from an Uncasville, Connecticut, casino crashed as it was returning to New York City’s Chinatown neighbourhood, in lower Manhattan, killing 15 people.
The bus in yesterday’s crash, operated by a Pennsylvania company, is believed to have entered the grass along the centre median before striking an overpass support and hitting an embankment along the right side of the road, Jones said. It was travelling south on the turnpike when the crash occurred around 1am today (AEDT) near East Brunswick, about 65km southwest of Manhattan, but it didn’t flip on to its side as initially believed, police said.
The cause of the crash hadn’t been determined.
Meanwhile the driver of the bus in the horrific weekend crash should not have been able to get behind the wheel because of a driving suspension and several traffic violations, two state officials familiar with the accident probe told The Associated Press yesterday.
Ophadell Williams was ticketed in 1995 for speeding and twice for driving without a licence, giving police the alias of Erik Williams, the officials said. Williams’ driving privileges were suspended, meaning he couldn’t legally drive in the state, after he failed to address the charges.
The revelations about Williams, a convicted felon with a 20-year-old manslaughter conviction, prompted Governor Andrew Cuomo to launch a state investigation into how Williams was able to hold a valid commercial driver’s licence at the time of the crash early on Saturday.
A 15th person died yesterday in the crash of the bus, which was taking gamblers home from a few hours at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. The bus was sheared in half by a sign pole, killing and maiming people in a jumbled mess on the highway.
Investigators zeroed in on the 40-year-old Williams’ record after his story that his tour bus was clipped by a tractor-trailer fell apart when passengers and witnesses said it never happened.
Investigators are piecing together his trail by matching Social Security numbers of traffic stops under different names, the officials said, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation. Williams also had an incomplete log book, a requirement for commercial drivers, the officials said.
Williams was convicted of crimes using two aliases. He served just more than two years for manslaughter for his role in a stabbing in 1990, according to state corrections records. He had initially been charged with second-degree murder.
Williams also served about three years, from 1998 to the middle of 2002, for grand larceny for removing a cheque from a Police Athletic League fund, according to Linda Foglia, a correctional services spokeswoman.
He also was arrested by New York City police on June 4, 2003, for driving with a suspended licence and for possession of three police radios. In 1987, he was arrested on charges of trying to get on public transportation without paying.
Hart said the tractor-trailer and the bus had a black box-like engine control module that might have stored information. He said the module from the bus had been sent to the NTSB lab in Washington for downloading; the tractor-trailer was impounded.
He identified the owner of the tractor-trailer as Webster Trucking Company of Connecticut and Massachusetts and said Webster was cooperating.
Hart said officials were bringing in extra equipment to inspect the left front side of the bus to cheque the driver’s account.
——–Agencies