Charter bus barrels into NYC bus, killing three and injuring 16

NEW YORK (AP):

A charter bus owned by a company with a record of safety problems barreled through an intersection, slammed into a city bus and then plowed across a sidewalk and into a building yesterday, killing three people.

The wreck, which was captured by a security camera, ripped away the facade of a fried chicken restaurant and started a small fire. The video appeared to show the charter bus racing through the intersection without applying its brakes.

"The tour bus was flying," Mike Ramos, a witnesses to the crash, told the Daily News. "There was people pinned under the front of the city bus. A lady was crying and screaming, 'Get me out! Get me out!'" he said.

One of the people killed was a pedestrian on the sidewalk, identified by police as Henry Wdowiak, 68, of Queens. The other dead were the charter bus driver, Raymond Ming, 49, and a passenger on the Metropolitan Transportation bus, Gregory Liljefors, 55.

Sixteen other people were hurt, some of them seriously, in the crash, which happened

at 6:15 a.m. in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, city

officials said at a briefing. The charter bus was empty of passengers at the time of the crash.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was shocked by the "sheer destruction".

A building that houses a number of retail stores, including the restaurant, received substantial impact from the crash, and experts were working to make sure it was secure, the mayor said.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota said that although the investigation has just begun, the evidence indicates there was "an enormous amount of speed".