Seven transported to hospital in N. Merrick bus crash

Six children, all of whom suffer from cerebral palsy and cannot speak, were taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow on Friday after the bus they were traveling in collided with a car on Meadowbrook Road in North Merrick, just outside the Brookside School, according to fire officials.

Sean Kelleher, assistant chief of the North Merrick Fire Department, said a car traveling northbound on Meadowbrook Road struck the yellow mini-bus at 9:10 a.m. as it came off the exit ramp of the Southern State Parkway, on the southern end of the Meadowbrook Road bridge over the parkway. Kelleher did not give a cause of the crash.

Because the children could not speak, they were transported to the hospital for observation, Kelleher said. The driver of the car, who was not identified at the scene, was also taken to Nassau University Medical Center, complaining of neck and back pain.

The bus was transporting the children to the United Cerebral Palsy Center of Nassau County in Roosevelt, according to Kelleher. The bus's front fender was ripped off in the crash, but the vehicle did not appear to have sustained further damage.

Emergency medical technicians and firefighters from the North Merrick, Merrick, North Bellmore and East Meadow fire departments responded.

Officials noted that the bus was moved from the crash site to the north parking lot of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s Brookside School to ensure the safety of the children as they were moved from their bus to another one that took them to the medical center. The children, though, were not part of the Central High School District.

Officials at the scene asked that no photographs of the children be taken out of concern for their privacy, and the Herald respected that request.