Video shows bus dangling off Bronx overpass after crashing through retaining wall
NEW YORK - An MTA bus crashed into a retaining wall Friday in the Bronx, leaving a portion of the vehicle hanging off an overpass.
Residents in the area said they were shocked to learn no one was injured, considering the sidewalk below is usually full of pedestrians.
The BxM1 bus was apparently heading into Midtown Manhattan when it crashed around 8:40 a.m. at West Kappock Street and Independence Avenue, near the Henry Hudson Parkway in Spuyten Duyvil.
Video showed the bus partially hanging over the roadway after smashing through a guardrail.
Watch Chopper 2 over the scene
Leaders with the bus union said the driver, who has been on the job for about 10 years, could not make a turn on a service road along the parkway. Another bus driver, with 37 years on the job, saw that she was having trouble, so he came to help.
"He tried to help her out, and things turned out a little worse," said Marcos Soler, chairman of the Yonkers Depot TWU Local 100.
Soler said the male bus driver was two buses behind her and saw she was struggling. He wound up struggling, too.
"Between the grass and the ditch, the bus just slid, through no fault of his own, and as he was applying the brakes, it ended up making contact with the wall," Soler said. "Twenty tons of bus downhill on a curb. Accidents happen."
Witnesses said he couldn't make the turn either, saying it was too tight because of a car that was parked legally but sticking out slightly, causing the turn to be even more narrow.
"You can hear the boom of rock, and I knew he hit the wall. I and I didn't know how bad until I got down here," area resident Max Yahr said. "Pretty intense stuff to push through the wall like that."
"He was trying to go back... so he was backing up, and at that moment, I just turned my back, and then when I saw the guy, he just went into the wall," one witness said.
"I heard a big thump, a big, big, big bump, and then another one. It must've been the collapsing of the wall," said another. "Kind of like a bomb, like a big boom."
The close call had residents - and the bus - on edge.
Investigators are looking into whether any ice or winter elements may have also played a factor.
