A New Jersey Transit bus carrying several people was involved in a serious accident that left the driver and eight passengers injured and a commercial building in Newark, New Jersey close to collapse.
The accident took place in the middle of Newark’s busy downtown area, and was apparently a result of the public transit bus being struck by a yellow taxi just after midnight. According to authorities the bus and the cab collided on Market Street and the force of the impact sent both vehicles across the road, where the bus crashed into the corner building. A city official predicted that the building would likely collapse during the process of removing the bus from the brick edifice.
The driver of the bus was said to have suffered the worst injuries, and was taken to University Hospital in Newark, as were eight bus passengers and the driver of the yellow taxi. All had been released within several hours of the accident.
Clean up following the accident was expected to take quite a bit of time, as twelve hours after the accident took place the taxi was still where it had come to rest on the sidewalk and the bus remained stuck in the building. The accident created havoc in the middle of Newark’s busy downtown area, reducing the flow of traffic each way to just one lane and requiring a police presence to help direct traffic. Police sent out tweets suggesting that drivers avoid the area around the intersection of Market Street and Washington Street, but the traffic extended beyond that area due to the barriers and detours that were set up to try to keep people away. An excavator was brought in to help with digging the transit bus out of the rubble.
According to New Jersey Transit, the bus had been on its way to Penn Station in Newark, New Jersey when the accident took place, and though the accident scene was still under investigation, NJ Transit spokesman William Smith indicated that the taxi had struck the bus. The mayor of Newark, Luis Quintana, praised the work of the police, firefighters and first responders in attending to the injured and keeping the accident scene under control.