A month after the deadly tour bus crash on the Thruway in Pembroke, several passengers were still being cared for in Buffalo hospitals, but their conditions continued to improve.
The 6-year-old girl who was seriously injured in the crash was scheduled to be discharged Tuesday from Oishei Children’s Hospital, Kaleida Health spokesperson Jacqueline A. Bett said.
Erie County Medical Center, meanwhile, said it discharged one crash patient Monday from its Medical Rehabilitation Unit. ECMC is caring for its last two crash patients at its Terrace View Long-Term Care Facility who are going through rehabilitation and “should be ready to go in about two weeks,” spokesperson Peter K. Cutler said just after 9 a.m. Tuesday.
University of Rochester Medical Center, which operates Strong Memorial Hospital, discharged its last patient from the tour bus crash on Sept. 16, spokesperson Maureen Malone said.
The 2005 motorcoach that crashed at about 12:20 p.m. Aug. 22 was carrying 53 passengers and the driver. Five people were killed, while the driver and 48 passengers sustained injuries that ranged from minor to serious. Of those 49 survivors, 21 received treatment at ECMC, 20 went to Kaleida’s hospitals, six were transported to University of Rochester Medical Center and two were taken to United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia.
The 2005 Van Hool bus, operated by M&Y Tours Inc. of Staten Island, was traveling from Niagara Falls back to New York City. The crash prompted a massive emergency response, filling the scene with medical helicopters and physicians. Meanwhile, area hospitals cleared out their emergency departments to prepare for the influx of patients.
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UBMD Emergency Medicine had six of its physicians at the scene of the tour bus crash on Aug. 22 in Pembroke, a deadly incident that created a massive emergency response.
At ECMC that day, most patients were treated in the Emergency Department, while two were in the trauma intensive care unit and two more were rushed into the operating room – one for internal injuries and the other for a severe extremity injury.
“This is probably the most trauma patients we’ve had from one incident in my career here in Buffalo,” ECMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Samuel D. Cloud, a 25-year industry veteran, said the afternoon of Aug. 22.
All aspects of the crash remain under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The NTSB released its preliminary report into the crash on Sept. 16, though the early report did not include much new information beyond what New York State Police had already released.
The NTSB’s investigative team will be on scene for the next four to six days, with a preliminary report expected to be published in about 30 days.
The NTSB said the motorcoach was traveling east on the Thruway near Pembroke when it departed the travel lanes onto the right shoulder. From there, the bus continued left across both eastbound lanes, entered the center median, reentered the eastbound travel lanes, twisted counterclockwise and rolled onto its right side. The bus came to rest with its front end on the shoulder and edge of the eastbound road, about a quarter mile east of mile marker 404.0.
The NTSB’s final report could take between 12 months and 24 months to complete. The NTSB intends to determine the probable cause of the crash and to issue safety recommendations to prevent similar events.
“Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, and to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again,” NTSB member Thomas Chapman said during a briefing last month.
Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on X at @ByJonHarris.
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Jon Harris
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