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Multiple people are dead after a tour bus with more than 50 passengers lost control and rolled over on a major highway in upstate New York on Friday, state police said.
The bus was coming from Niagara Falls and was believed to be traveling back to New York City, state Trooper James O’Callaghan said at the scene of the crash. The bus was traveling eastbound on the New York State Thruway near Pembroke, around 30 miles northeast of Buffalo and 40 miles southeast of Niagara Falls.
“For unknown reasons, the vehicle lost control, went into the median, over-corrected and ended up in the ditch” on the side of the road, O’Callaghan said. The bus was going full speed, but did not hit any other vehicle, he said.
There were “multiple fatalities, multiple entrapments and multiple injuries,” O’Callaghan said. At least one child was believed to be among the fatalities, he said.
The total number of deaths and injuries was still being determined, O’Callaghan said.
Gail Potter
The Erie County Medical Center, a level 1 adult trauma center, said it had received seven patients as of about 2 p.m. ET.
Mercy Flight, a nonprofit emergency air medical transport provider, said it had taken four patients by air to hospitals and would be transporting at least two more.
The nationalities of most of the people on the bus were Indian, Chinese and Philippine, O’Callaghan said.
State police were in contact with the tour bus company.
“Avoid the NYS Thruway eastbound at all costs as a tour bus has rolled over near the Erie and Genesee County lines,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said on X. In a later update, Poloncarz called the crash a “serious mass casualty bus accident.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had been briefed on “the tragic tour bus accident” on the thruway.
“My team is coordinating closely with @nyspolice and local officials who are working to rescue and provide assistance to everyone involved,” she wrote on X.
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