- Several people are dead after a tour bus with more than 50 people on board crashed in New York State on Friday, Aug. 22
- Multiple people were injured, and emergency personnel remain on the scene, police have confirmed
- Governor Kathy Hochul said she had been briefed on the “tragic” accident
Emergency responders are at the scene of a “serious mass casualty” bus crash in New York, according to officials.
On the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 22, a tour bus that had taken visitors to Niagara Falls was on its way back to New York City when it crashed on the eastbound lane of Interstate 90 between exits 48A and 49 in Pembroke, a town less than 30 miles from Buffalo, according to New York State Police. There were 52 people on board, including the driver, according to the manifest reviewed by officials.
“Preliminary reports indicate the bus, carrying more than 50 passengers, overturned,” a spokesperson from the New York Police tells PEOPLE in a statement. “Multiple individuals have been injured, with several confirmed fatalities.”
“We believe there is a child that is a fatality,” New York State Trooper James O’Callaghan told reporters, according to CNN and NBC outlet WHEC.
Additionally, he confirmed that there were “multiple entrapments” and “ejections,” according to Newsweek.
O’Callaghan said that officials believe most of the passengers were not wearing a seatbelt, CNN reported. Although the investigation is still ongoing and additional details about the victims have not yet been released, officials believe most of the individuals on the bus were Indian, Chinese and Filipino.
A level-one trauma center in Erie County received seven patients as of 2 p.m., while Mercy Flight, an air medical transport provider, said it had flown four people to hospitals and would be taking at least two more, CBS News reported.
Witnesses told authorities that they saw the “bus lose control, enter the median, then cross to the southern shoulder and overturn,” according to New York State Police.
First responders at the scene were joined by helicopters and police.
Following news of the crash, a local official in Erie County, Mark Poloncarz wrote on X that part of the thruway was closed “until further notice due to the serious mass casualty bus accident in Genesee County just over the Erie County line.”
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had been “briefed on the tragic tour bus accident” in a statement on X.
“My team is coordinating closely with @nyspolice and local officials who are working to rescue and provide assistance to everyone involved,” she said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
