Third Casino Bus Crash In Week

A bus bound for Atlantic City casinos crashed Monday, injuring 13 people in the third such accident in less than a week. None of the injuries were life-threatening.

What caused the Greyhound bus to crash into a bridge abutment Monday evening wasn't immediately clear. The right front of the bus hit the abutment, cracking the windshield and sending glass flying.

Thirteen people were taken to hospitals for treatment of minor injuries such as bumps, bruises and cuts.

The two earlier crashes, both of buses taking New York City gamblers to and from Atlantic City casinos, prompted lawmakers to press for increased bus safety, such as seat belts and higher fines for safety violations.

A Christmas Eve crash on the Parkway in Sayreville killed eight people. And an accident Sunday on the New Jersey Turnpike injured all 31 people aboard a casino-bound bus. Authorities say excessive speed probably was a factor in that second crash. The cause of the first crash was still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies.

However, according to today's editions of The Record of Hackensack, only one of the 55 serious accidents on the casino route in the past two years involved a bus - the one on Christmas Eve. Approximately 410,000 buses carry 10 million gamblers into Atlantic City each year.