A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls crashed and rolled in western New York state Friday afternoon, resulting in “multiple fatalities” and closing a major thoroughfare, authorities said.
The bus was traveling east on Interstate 90 near Pembroke, which is about halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, when it crashed about 12:30 p.m., officials said.
"For unknown reasons, the vehicle lost control, went into the median, overcorrected and ended up in the ditch," New York State Trooper James O’Callaghan told reporters.
"And at this time, we have multiple fatalities, multiple entrapments and multiple injuries."
It is not clear how many people were killed.
The bus ended up on its side on the south shoulder of I-90 with "significant damage," O’Callaghan said.
"Obviously, this bus was going full speed," he said. "It did not hit any other vehicle. It basically lost control."
The chartered bus headed to New York City had 52 people on board, including the driver, according to a state police statement.
With the investigation just getting underway, it was difficult to immediately determine what caused the bus to lose control.
"This is an ongoing incident," O’Callaghan said. "We don't have all the answers. "
There are children among the victims.
Translators were dispatched to the scene to help first responders communicate with victims.
The driver survived and is being interviewed by investigators.
"I would say almost every person on this collision has some sort of cut, bruise or abrasion as an injury," O’Callaghan said.
Twenty-four of the injured were taken to Erie County Medical Center, and they were all expected to survive.
While the doctors there said they'd never treated this many many patients at their hospital all at once, the procedures remain the same.
"Maybe not this many patients, OK, but on a microscopic scale, we do this every day," said Dr. Jeffrery Brewer, the hospital's chief of surgery.
"So any patient that comes in here from a car wreck or a gunshot or a fall, they're evaluated in the same way. So you're just multiplying that (today)."
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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