Child among three injured in bus crash in Riverhead
A mini school bus carrying one child collided with a Suffolk County transit bus in Riverhead on Wednesday, Jan. 14, sending three people to the hospital — including the child, Riverhead police said.
The Montauk Bus Company mini school bus was traveling northbound on Northville Turnpike and the Suffolk County transit bus was heading eastbound on Doctors Path when they collided at the intersection around 3:15 p.m., police said. The collision flipped the transit bus, which was carrying a driver and one adult passenger, onto its side.
Riverhead firefighters extricated the adult passenger from the overturned transit bus. The child passenger, the mini school bus driver and the adult passenger on the transit bus were all transported to Peconic Bay Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
“The intersection at Doctors Path and Northville Turnpike has unfortunately been the site of several accidents over the years,” the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps wrote in a Facebook post after the incident. “While we don’t have exact yearly numbers, there have been past incidents that sent folks to the hospital and even involved serious injuries.”
The front end of the school bus was smashed in, according to a photo RVAC posted. The transit bus was towed away after crews flipped it back over, another photo showed.
The Riverhead Police Department and Riverhead Fire Department responded, along with the RVAC, Flanders Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Mattituck Fire Department ambulance, according to a police news release.
RVAC credited Stony Brook University ambulance personnel for also offering assistance at the scene.
Anyone who witnessed the accident is asked to call the Riverhead Police Department at 631-727-4500. All calls will be kept confidential.
