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Mostly Cloudy Three injured in Rockville Centre school bus collision
Three people were injured — none seriously — when an empty school bus hit another school bus carrying nine students.
A South Side Middle School student, one of four or five who were waiting at the curb for their bus to school, tripped and fell while running from the oncoming bus. She ended up under the bus, but wasn't hit by it.
The collision took place shortly after 7 a.m. Friday at the corner of Hempstead Avenue and Richmond Road. The two bus drivers, one man and one woman, and the middle school student, a girl, were taken to area hospitals. The student and the male bus driver were treated and released. According to the Atlantic Express bus company, the female bus driver was still hospitalized as of Friday afternoon. None of the nine Rockville Centre students, on their way to Chaminade High School in Mineola for finals, were hurt. They were cleared and released at the scene.
Emergency crews and school officials rushed to the accident scene. The empty bus, driven by the male driver, had been travelling north on Hempstead Avenue when it hit the bus with the students, which had been traveling east across Hempstead. There was no word on the cause of the collision.
Wendy Curran, a resident of Eton Road, which runs perpendicular to Richmond Road, said that she was just getting out of bed when she heard a loud crash.
“I was tired and I had just gotten up and I thought it might have just been a garbage truck picking up something large, like an oven,” Curran said. “I was at my computer answering emails and about ten minutes later I heard the sirens and realized it wasn’t the garbage."
According to Curran, buses speeding in the area are a common problem.
“I was upset at myself because so many times I’ve tried to cross Hempstead and… the school buses come screaming around that corner at more than 50 miles an hour, but I never called to complain,” Curran said. “I hate to see a light go up there, but I think it’s necessary. And I think maybe the bus drivers should be checked more often.”
