By CARA ANNA
The Associated Press
WESTPORT, N.Y. — Workers removed a fifth body Tuesday from the wreckage of a Greyhound bus that crashed through a guard rail and landed upside down in an embankment, officials said.
Ray Thatcher, director of emergency services for Essex County, confirmed five people died in the Monday evening crash, including the driver, whose body was trapped in the bus overnight. It was recovered and the bus removed from the scene Tuesday morning.
The bus departed New York at 1 p.m. Monday en route to Montreal and made stops in Albany and Saratoga Springs before the 6:45 p.m. crash about 110 miles north of Albany. There were 52 passengers and one driver onboard, Greyhound spokeswoman Anna Folmnsbee said.
Officials at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh said 37 survivors were brought to the facility, and 22 were treated and released. Other victims were taken to other hospitals in the region. Police initially said four of the survivors were critically injured.
The patients were of all ages, including a few children, and had injuries including cuts, bruises and broken bones.
Rob Kaplan of Long Island, a second-year student at Concordia University in Montreal, was on his way back to school when the crash happened.
“I was asleep when the bus started skidding for no reason. It was the most terrible thing I’ve ever experienced,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., his right eye swollen shut and a cut above the eyebrow.
“We flipped over like four times and I was knocked out,” he said. “People had terrible injuries. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m not really OK. Look at me. I’m in terrible pain, everything hurts. I don’t understand why it went off the road. People had injuries so much worse than mine.”
The highway linking New York City and Montreal reopened Tuesday morning, troopers said.
The bus, a model DL-3, just passed its annual federal inspection last week, Folmnsbee said.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency was monitoring the incident but had not yet decided whether to launch an investigation. The Federal Motor Carrier Agency also was notified about the accident and expected to investigate, officials said.