A commuter’s nightmare recently occurred on a weekday morning during rush hour in New York City. According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, at 7:25 a.m. on a Thursday in June, three buses and a motorcycle collided inside the Lincoln Tunnel connecting New Jersey to New York underneath of the Hudson River.
According to a spokesman for the fire department, the motorcycle rider suffered serious injuries and was transported to an area hospital. No reports were available on his condition. An additional 28 others received injuries in the accident that were categorized as non-life threatening or minor, with 18 of those taken by emergency vehicles to a hospital for treatment.
The Port Authority’s spokeswoman said that due to the wreck, the center tube was forced to close. That left only two traffic lanes open for the crush of commuters attempting to enter the city. Across the Hudson on the New Jersey side, delays lasted for about two hours.
Statistics from the Port Authority, the agency designated to oversee the metropolitan area’s bridges and tunnels, show that a normal morning commute from New Jersey to New York City includes 62,000 workers riding on 1,700 buses traveling through the Lincoln Tunnel.
Surviving a collision, even initially, with three buses while on a motorcycle is rare. The circumstances surrounding the multi-vehicle accident were not indicated. An investigation will certainly be undertaken to determine who was at fault in the wreck. With the large number of victims on the three buses who were injured, the likelihood of civil litigation arising out of the incident is high.
Source: Today News, “3 buses, motorcycle crash in NYC tunnel,” June 25, 2014
