Federal agents probing the cause of a horrific Bronx crash that killed 14 discount-bus passengers were poring over the coach’s “black box” and onboard videotape Sunday night.
Investigators said the black box will reveal if the driver, Ophadell Williams, was speeding, and video should indicate if he fell asleep at the wheel – or support his initial claim he was sideswiped by a big rig.
A truck driver contacted state police Sunday, but claimed he was behind the bus, not alongside it, and saw it weaving and then swerve off southbound lanes of Interstate 95.
Christopher Hart, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the truck driver’s rig was impounded and was being inspected for damage.
The tractor-trailer showed no visible signs of colliding with the bus, but it has to be checked more closely and taken apart, a police source said.
Hart said the bus’ onboard camera was pointed at the passengers, but investigators will probably be able to determine if the driver lost control after falling asleep or was bumped.
Surviving passengers told police that Williams, 40, of Brooklyn, had dozed off several times, waking up after hitting the roadway rumble strip, right before the bus careened out of control.
Williams, who passed a Breathalyzer test, arrived at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn., about 11 p.m. on Friday and took a nap in the parking lot, casino staffers told the state police. A Mohegan Sun staffer woke him up about 3 a.m. on Saturday to take the ill-fated group back to Manhattan, a source said.
The 1999 World Wide Travel bus left the casino at 3:45 a.m. and was headed to Chinatown when tragedy struck at 5:35 a.m. as most of the 31 passengers slept.
The bus slammed into a guardrail, toppled on its side near the Hutchinson Parkway exit ramp and skidded 480 feet into a freeway signpost that acted like a can opener and sheared off most of the roof.
Eight men and six women, most of them Chinese-Americans, were killed, while 14 were injured, six critically.
Hart said NTSB investigators had interviewed two passengers but had yet to speak to Williams, who was released from the hospital last night after being treated for scrapes and a neck injury.
Officials of World Wide Travel met with NTSB and state police investigators Sunday, said company spokesman and general counsel Eric Brodie.
“We are fully cooperating,” said Brodie, who refused to elaborate on orders of the NTSB.
The company has been cited five times for “fatigued driving” and investigated for at least two crashes in the past two years, according to records from the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
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One Response
A good case for wearing seat belts even on buses. They save lives. I nearly always wear them on buses, people look at me funny and I tell them that you need them once in 10,000 times, but that time you need them.