34 hurt as careening bus hits building

By RICHARD WEIR, SCOTT SHIFREL and LEO STANDORA

August 2, 2000 Web posted at: 10:41 AM EDT (1441 GMT)

NEW YORK (The New York Daily News) -- An out-of-control city bus veered across two oncoming lanes on busy W. 34th St. last night, hit a traffic agent and then slammed into a parked car before crashing into a building 100 feet down the sidewalk, authorities and witnesses said.

Screaming pedestrians scrambled out of the way as the eastbound M34 uprooted a 20-foot tree, plowed over parking meters and destroyed a huge concrete flower planter on the sidewalk before crashing into the front door of Salomon Smith Barney at 333 W. 34th St. on the north side of the street between Eighth and Ninth Aves.

Passengers on the bus were so terrified that many of them jumped out windows, witnesses said.

The unidentified driver apparently suffered some kind of seizure, witnesses said.

"He was slumped over the wheel even before he hit the wall," said one man.

Office of Emergency Management Director Richard Sheirer said 34 people were hurt, most with head and neck injuries, none life-threatening.

"If there's one thing you can say about this, it's that this may be a true miracle on 34th St., that you could have a city bus go up on the sidewalk at 7 o'clock on a warm summer night and have only one person get hit," he said.

The 25-year-old NYPD traffic agent, who was not immediately identified, was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition with head injuries.

The bus driver was taken to St. Vincent's Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition. His mother described her 25-year-old son as "a good boy who never had any problems." She declined to give her name or her son's name.

Witness Jean Bolcy, 34, said the crosstown bus began veering across the yellow line and into oncoming traffic just after it passed the corner of Ninth Ave. Cabs and cars slammed on their brakes as the bus rolled completely across the street and struck the traffic agent, who was talking to a man in a parked car.

"It snapped her about 20 feet right into the gutter," Bolcy said. "Her head was bleeding, and her arms looked all twisted."

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