By Our Reporter
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.
At a news conference held at Buffalo’s Erie County Medical Center Friday afternoon, doctors said that 24 patients were being treated, with two of them sent to the operating room and several others taken to the trauma ICU. They said that the patients sustained head injuries, extremity fractures and internal injuries.
Other patients from the crash were taken to Strong Material Hospital, Oishei Children’s Hospital, Buffalo General Medical Center and Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, ABC affiliate WABC 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.
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.”
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.
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