A crash involving a double-decker tour bus and a city bus in Manhattan Thursday evening sent 18 people to hospitals for treatment, fire and EMS officials said.
Reports of a major vehicle crash came in just after 7 p.m., Deputy Chief Kevin Murphy with the New York Fire Department’s Division 1 Unit said. Emergency personnel found what he described as a serious accident, with the larger bus adding complications.
“We’ve had a few minor challenges in the double decker bus — going through the windows, taking people out,” New York EMS Division 1 Deputy Chief Paul Hopper said.
Ladders and ropes were required to get some people down because of crash damage to the bus, Murphy said.
Many of those injured have cuts, bruises, scrapes, along with suspected fractures and head and neck injuries, Hopper said.
“None have any life-threatening injury,” said Hopper, who added that about 63 other passengers requested evaluations by a doctor who was at the scene.
Hopper and Murphy said they couldn’t speculate about what led up to the crash.
“I heard the lady next to me scream, so I looked up and I saw this bus barreling towards us,” Ishrak Jahan, a passenger on one bus, told CBS News New York. “I just saw glass everywhere for a second. It was honestly like I was in a movie … I saw blood. I immediately called 911.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.