June 10, 2015
A New Jersey Transit bus rear-ended a private bus in the Lincoln Tunnel Wednesday, injuring anywhere from 18 to 30 people at the end of morning rush hour, none of them critically, officials said.
The two buses collided in the center tube of the 1.5-mile tunnel at 9:35 a.m., said Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the tunnel.
None of the passengers suffered life-threatening injuries, he said.
Pentangelo said traffic in the tunnel, through which almost 19 million vehicles passed each month in 2014, has been rerouted to the south tube until further notice.
The private bus was carrying 26 Canadian students and two staff members visiting New York on an eighth-grade graduation class trip, the AP reported. None of its passengers reported injuries.
About 60 people were riding the NJ Transit bus when the accident occurred. The four most severely hurt suffered neck and back injuries.
David Gomez, a passenger on the NJ Transit bus, told NBC New York that most passengers were not prepared for the impact and that several were bleeding. The station also reported a woman in labor was among those stuck in the tunnel.
The Lincoln Tunnel connects New Jersey to Manhattan. It includes three tubes beneath the Hudson River.
