Crime & Safety

Cops: 4 Children, 4 Adults Injured in School Bus Accident, None Seriously

Students were headed to the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead when the accident occurred Wednesday morning, police said.

No serious injuries were reported after a school bus accident in Riverhead on Wednesday morning sent nine to the hospital, police said.

According to Riverhead Town Police, the accident occurred at 11:22  a.m. on Wednesday when the school bus, which was headed from a Bronx day camp, "ran into the back of a pickup truck," police said.


The accident occurred on the corner of West Main Street, just west of the intersection with Raynor Avenue. The GMC pickup, police said, was stopped in traffic eastbound, allowing another vehicle to turn, when a school bus owned by Boro Transport of Brooklyn, which was traveling behind the pickup, failed to stop, striking the rear of the pickup.



The school bus, police said, had 32 children and nine adults onboard, and was heading to the Long Island Aquarium on a field trip.

Four children — all between ages six and 12 — and four adults from the school bus, as well as the pickup truck driver, were taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center with "non-life-threatening injuries," police said.

The injured were transported by the Riverhead Town Volunteer Ambulance Corps, along with the Mattituck Fire Department, the Mastic Fire Department, the Manorville Fire Department, and the Wading River Fire Department.

The bus was taken for a Department of Transportation inspection, police added. No summons was issued to either driver.

What initially sparked a tremendous outpouring in terms of emergency responders, after a child reportedly was said to have a shoulder injury, ended up being a "minor accident," police said.

The scene on Main Street was initially reported as mayhem, with emergency vehicles and manpower from across the East End descending on the scene to help.


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