The World Wide Tours bus, on its way to Manhattan's Chinatown from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, flipped on a Bronx highway and crashed into a metal traffic
Chung Ninh, 59, among the passengers napping just before the accident, told the New York Daily News he opened his eyes to bloodshed.
Ninh escaped through an emergency exit in the rear of the bus, he told the Post, and suffered only cuts to his hand. Others weren't as lucky. Fellow passenger Jose Hernandez told the newspaper that only a few passengers escaped without serious injury.
"The rest were dead or screaming for help," he said.
The bus driver told police he lost control when a tractor-trailer swerved in front of him shortly after 5:30 a.m. on Interstate 95; the truck did not stop after the crash, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference today.
Police started a search for the truck driver, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne told NBC New York.
Most of the passengers were hurled to the front of the bus on impact; because of the way the bus came to rest, many were pinned in the wreckage, Fire Chief Edward Kilduff said. The few who escaped before rescue workers arrived at the scene were dazed and wandering.
Limousine driver Homer Martinez, who was driving on the highway in the moments after the wreck, saw drivers racing from their vehicles to help.
"People were saying, 'Oh my God. Oh my God,' holding their hands on their heads," Martinez told The Associated Press. "I saw people telling other people not to go there, saying 'You don't want to see this.'"
Most of the victims were Asian, ranging in age from 20 to 50, Kelly said. Counselors able to speak Mandarin and Cantonese were called to the scene to help, he said.
Counselors also were summoned to aid firefighters and others who responded to the accident. New York's Fox News 5 reported that veteran rescue workers could barely cope with the carnage.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg released a statement calling the accident "horrific."
"Our -- and the entire city's -- prayers, thoughts and sympathies are with the victims, and their families and loved ones," Bloomberg said.
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