Three people died in a bus crash at 6:20 AM on Monday at the corner of Northern Boulevard and Main Street in Flushing, Queens.
The MTA bus, a Q20 that was transporting 15 commuters, was making a right, eastbound turn onto Northern Boulevard from Main Street when it was struck by a private Dahlia Travel and Tour bus with no passengers inside. The Q20 spun to face westbound and suffered severe damages to its exterior. The tour bus continued to crash into Kennedy Pizza & Chicken.
There were a total of three fatalities. The first was a pedestrian on the sidewalk. The second was the driver of the tour bus, and the last was an MTA bus passenger. Sixteen are injured, and seven are in critical condition in New York City hospitals. The victims have not yet been named as it is very early on in the investigation.
Jay Rivera, 52, from Flushing, witnessed the crash. “I’ve never seen an accident of this magnitude… A lady told me that the buses hit at full speed. They have the jaws of life out, so you know it must be bad,” Rivera said.
At the press conference held later that morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio ensured that the city’s primary concern is safety. “We are going to focus on first and foremost making sure that the community here is safe and that that building is safe,” de Blasio said. Safety improvements to this area are already underway as it is one of the deadliest sections of the city.
With that, the mayor discussed his plans for Vision Zero, an initiative to reduce and hopefully erase the number of fatalities from traffic accidents. De Blasio has planned to change and improve intersections and enforce slower driving speeds to prevent accidents like this in the future.