Kids’ Bus Ride Ends In Disaster

Firefighters and paramedics are shown coming to the aid of preschoolers who were injured after their school bus collided with another vehicle and flipped over in Middle Village on Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 1. (photo: Joseph Epstein) Nine students of a Middle Village preschool were injured after the school bus they were riding in collided with a car and overturned onto a neighborhood street on Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 1.

Each of the youths, ranging from three to five years of age, was hospitalized with injuries that Fire Department sources described as not life-threatening. Two adults on board the bus as well as the driver of the other vehicle also suffered minor injuries.

Police surround the school bus damaged in an accident at the intersection of 69th Road and 75th Street in Middle Village on Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 1. (photo: Joseph Epstein) Law enforcement sources said the accident occurred at around 1:05 p.m. Tuesday afternoon at the intersection of 69th Road and 75th Street.

The location has been the site of several other serious vehicular accidents in recent years, as previously reported, including a crash involving an Access-a-Ride bus just over a year ago on Nov. 19, 2008. Tuesday’s accident prompted residents and City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley to repeat calls for the installation of a traffic control device in the area.

Police said the school bus—carrying nine children from the Positive Beginnings preschool on Metropolitan Avenue as well as the driver and a matron—were traveling along 69th Road when it was struck by a sedan driven by a women heading northbound on 75th Street.

Police later determined that the driver of the sedan rode through the intersection without stopping at a posted stop sign.

Following the initial impact, Fire Department sources said, the school bus flipped over onto its side and crashing into a vehicle parked on 69th Road.

Scores of Police and Fire Department units responded to the accident, including members of the 104th Precinct, Patrol Borough Queens North, NYPD Emergency Services Unit 10, Engine companies 286 and 291; Ladder companies 135 and 143; Squad Co. 288, Rescue 4, Battalion 46 and multiple EMS units.

According to sources, parents waiting for their children at the school ran to the scene upon receiving word of the accident.

The nine youngsters on board as well as the school bus driver and matron were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in stable condition with minor injuries. The driver of the sedan that crashed into the bus was also hospitalized for minor injuries.

As of press time, police said, no charges have been filed against the drivers involved, and no criminality is suspected. The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the NYPD Accident Investigation Squad.

Not the first accident

In a phone interview with the Times Newsweekly, Crowley noted that residents living in the area of 69th Road in Middle Village had contacted her repeatedly in the past year regarding traffic conditions and the frequency of accidents along the thoroughfare.

Crowley’s office forwarded to this newspaper three letters sent by the Council member to Queens Borough Commissioner for the Department of Transportation Maura McCarthy dated Feb. 3, July 20 and Aug. 19 of this year requesting traffic safety control devices, citing previous accidents including a fatal motorcycle crash in 2008.

Despite these repeated contacts, the legislator said, the DOT had failed to follow through on her suggested safety improvements such as an all-way stop sign at the intersection of 69th Road and 75th Street, the installation of a speed bump or the conversion of 69th Road into a oneway street.

Following Tuesday’s school bus accident, Crowley dispatched a fourth letter to Commissioner Mc- Carthy urging “immediate action” to make 69th Road safer for all pedestrians, drivers and passengers.

“I know that many of the people who live in and around the intersection feel the same way I do,” Crowley said in her interview with this paper. “We’re not going to sit around and let nothing happen.”