Police

Glass shatters in school bus crash in Aquebogue, two hurt

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Two people were injured Friday morning when a Mattituck school bus was T-boned on Main Road.

A teenage student and adult were injured Friday afternoon in Aquebogue after a vehicle jumped a parking lot curb and ran into Main Road, crashing into a school bus carrying seven aviation students to Shirley, police and a bus driver said.

The Mattituck-Cutchogue school bus was heading west on Main Road about 11:30 a.m. carrying Southold and Mattituck-Cutchogue students to the Suffolk Aviation Academy at Eastern Suffolk BOCES in Shirley, the bus driver, Gayle Haas, said from the scene.

That’s when another vehicle drove through a parking lot near the intersection of Church Lane and collided with the front right side of the bus, she said.

Several windows on the bus shattered and the school bus was pushed into oncoming traffic, but no cars were traveling in the other direction at the time of the crash, sparing the bus from getting hit again, she said.

During an interview, Ms. Haas had to shake chunks of safety glass out of her hair.

One student from Mattituck was in the back seat when the glass there shattered, cutting him on the face, Ms. Haas and other students in the bus said. He was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center by Riverhead ambulance volunteers to be treated for his cuts.

The other students said they were just relaxing on the bus, as they do everyday on the way to BOCES, when the crash happened.

“I was just sitting there and I heard screaming and I put my arm up against the seat,” said Anthony, one of the students.

The driver of the other vehicle told police he “had an issue” and could not stop in the parking lot, Riverhead Town police said.

He also suffered minor injuries in the accident and was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center.

Police briefly closed Main Road while the accident was cleaned up.

The students and the bus driver waited on the sidewalk for a second bus to arrive and take the remaining students to BOCES for class.

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