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Double-Decker Bus Slams into Overpass Killing 4, Injuring More

By Paul Napoli

September 11, 2010

Four people are dead and more than a dozen injured after a double-decker Megabus slammed into a railroad overpass while traveling on the roadway below, outside Syracuse, NY reported Syracuse.com.

The Megabus, operated by Coach USA and carrying 27 passengers, left Philadelphia at 10 p.m. on Friday headed for Toronto with stops in Syracuse and Buffalo.

About 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, the Megabus enroute from Philly to Syracuse was on the Onondaga Lake Parkway when it smashed into the railroad overpass because at 13 feet tall, it was too tall for the bridge's 10 ft 9 in clearance. The bus then flipped onto its side, tossing passengers around inside.

The bus driver was lost and looking for the Regional Transportation Center on Park Street when the accident occurred.

Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh released the identities of three passengers killed as Kevin Coffey, 19, of Manhattan, KS, Ashwani Mehta, 39, of India and Rev. Benjamin Okerie, 35, of Malaysia. The name of the fourth passenger, a woman 18 years of age, is withheld pending identification by her family.

"Obviously the driver didn't see the signs or didn't realize the height of his bus, that the double-decker bus wouldn't fit under that bridge," Walsh told CNN affiliate YNN.

A flashing yellow light alerts drivers to the low clearance of the overpass.

All passengers killed and those who were most seriously injured had been traveling on the bus's upper deck.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Paul Napoli

Full post as published by New York City Personal Injury Lawyer on September 12, 2010 (boomark / email).