CONGERS, N. Y. (UPI) - A Penn Central freight train smashed into a school bus at a crossing here today, killing at least three children and injuring 40 others, many critically.
The train sliced the bus in two, dragging part of it 1,000 feet along the tracks and strewing children along the way, police said.
The bus was carrying students from the South Congers area to Nyack High School when it was struck by the train shortly before 8 a. m., police said.
Patrolman DON COCKER of the Clarkstown police said five of the injured students had limbs amputated in the accident and at least 40 injured students were taken to Nyack Hospital.
Anguished parents crowded the hospital lobby as mothers sobbed, "Is my child here?"
COCKER said police had been unable to question the driver, who was also hospitalized, but it was believed the bus was moving when it was struck by the train at a crossing marked with a sign but without crossing barriers.
Two students were pronounced dead at the scene, police said, and a third died later at a nearby hospital.
NED MEARA, who lives near the crossing, said the bus was "a tangled mess of steel" after the collision with the three-engine, 83-car train.
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