Two women were killed and nearly 50 other people were injured after a bus on a three-day sightseeing tour from New York to Washington, D.C., overturned in Delaware Sunday, authorities say.
Fifty-four-year-old Hau’y Chen, of New York City, and 30-year-old Idil Bashi, of Istanbul, were both killed after the bus flipped off the roadway while trying to turn onto an off an exit ramp in New Castle at about 4:20 p.m., investigators say.
The bus, which had a driver and 49 passengers on board, was traveling southbound on Delaware Route 1 and exiting onto the off-ramp to US-13 northbound in New Castle around 4:20 p.m.
As the driver, identified as 56-year-old Jinli Zhao of Flushing, Queens, tried to turn onto the ramp, the vehicle went off the roadway and overturned onto its roof, according to investigators.
The bus slid on its roof and traveled down a grassy embankment and rotated on its left side until it came to its final resting place, according to police.
Chen, a passenger on the bus, was ejected and then pinned underneath it. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Zhao and the other passengers were all taken to area hospitals with injuries of varying severity, officials say. At least three, including Bashi, had critical injuries, and at least two of the victims were children. Bashi died at a hospital about six hours after the crash.
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"The injuries vary widely," said Dr. Rob Rosenbaum, an Emergency Room physician at Christiana Care. "Some patients have head injuries. Some have injuries to their torso, ribs, abdomen and fractures."
Officials say the bus is owned by Am USA Express Incorporated, a regional bus company in Chinatown. The passengers were part of a sightseeing group sponsored by E World Travel and Tours based in New York City, according to police.
Investigators say their three-day trip began Friday and the bus was headed back to New York at the time of the crash.
Elvis D'cruz, a 19-year-old college student from New Castle, told NBC10 in Philadelphia he was driving home with a friend when he spotted the overturned bus. The two quickly got out of their vehicle to help the victims.
"It must've been within five minutes of the crash," D'cruz said. "There were about two to three other civilians there helping out. The bus had flipped over onto its side and some people were still underneath it. The bus was completely in a ditch. We tried to help them get out, as much as we could. We went to the car, got first aid equipment and passed out gauze and bandages, whatever we could to comfort people."
D'cruz described total chaos.
"It just made me feel how fragile life is at times," D'cruz said while in tears. "It was hard seeing that little boy in the middle of the crash scene. What I really can't forget is all of the screaming and the smell of blood in the air. People didn't know what to do. There was no one else at the scene. Within 15 minutes, state police arrived."
According to D'cruz, the Route 13 off-ramp has a history of accidents.
"There used to be a guard rail," he said. "People would go highway speeds on it even though you're supposed to slow down. People kept on slamming into the guard rail but it would stop them from flipping. They later on removed the guard rail and put flags up."
The ramp from Route 1 southbound to US-13 northbound was closed for about six hours Sunday.
The Delaware State Police’s Collision Reconstruction Unit is investigating the crash.
