North Hudson, N.Y : Teen dies, 50-plus hurt in Northway bus crash Friday morning on July 18, 2014

A tour from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, to New York City was abruptly cut short Friday morning when the bus flipped on its side in North Hudson. The crash left a teenage girl dead.

Police say at around 8 a.m., the tour bus was headed south on Interstate 87 when it suddenly veered off the road, crashed through the guardrail, and then rolled into the median.

"There was one individual who we believe was ejected or partially ejected from the bus. And the bus came to a rest on that individual," N.Y. State Police Maj. Richard Smith said.

Other drivers came to their aid, working to free the teen. But police say Chelssy Mercier, 14, of Quebec, died at the scene. They told us her mother was also on the bus.

More than 50 passengers were taken to area hospitals and one was airlifted to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vermont.

The 61-year-old driver from Canada was not hospitalized. Police say he has been inspected recently, but that is normal.

"In all three of those inspections he passed inspections, so there is no reason to believe that he had any problems with his driving credentials," Smith said.

It's not the first deadly bus crash in this area of the Northway in recent years. In February 2004 in North Hudson, another tour bus carrying Canadian tourists slammed into a truck that had slowed at a border patrol checkpoint. That crash killed four and injured more than 50. And in August 2006, a Greyhound bus blew a tire just up the interstate in Elizabethtown, rolling and killing five people, and injuring dozens more.

Police said when they got the call Friday morning they feared more would be dead.

"When I heard what had happened, that there was a bus in the median, it immediately brought to mind a mass casualty, mass fatality situation," Smith said. "But we are fortunate that only one of the individuals on that bus lost their life."

Police are not yet releasing the driver's name. They told us they are also not commenting on the cause of the crash until they take a look at the black boxes from the bus, which contain data on speed and braking.

Source :
Teenage girl killed in bus crash on Northway