News

Tour bus strikes truck on Thruway

By Colin DeVries

NEW BALTIMORE — A touring coach bus struck a tractor-trailer at approximately 3:15 a.m. Sunday in the northbound lane of I-87 at mile marker 127.5, according to State Police.

An investigation determined that the driver of the tractor-trailer, Mark Erickson, 47, of Elmira Heights, was headed northbound and attempting to make an illegal U-turn when the trailer was struck by a northbound bus, operated by Ferenc Weisz, 58, of Brooklyn.

The coach, of Runaway Tours or Transit Inc., was carrying 42 tourists from New York City bound for Montreal. Nine subjects, including the driver and passenger of the tractor-trailer, the driver of the bus and six of the bus passengers were transported to Albany Medical Center with minor cuts and bruises, police said.

Erickson was charged with making an illegal U-turn.

The northbound lanes of the Thruway were closed and northbound traffic was detoured around the accident along Route 9W for approximately 3 hours. State police were assisted at the scene by the New Baltimore Fire Department, ambulances from Bethlehem, Catskill, Coxsackie and Ravena, as well as Thruway maintenance personnel.

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