Four dead in Megabus crash near Syracuse, NY

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A double-decker bus traveling off its route hit a railroad bridge that it failed to clear and flipped on its side early Saturday, killing four people and injuring others, some critically, authorities said.

The Megabus was carrying at least 20 people when it crashed around 2:30 a.m. on the Onondaga Lake Parkway in Salina, a suburb of Syracuse in central New York, said Larry Ives, supervisor of dispatch operations for the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department.

He said the bus was too tall to make it under the low-clearance bridge. It struck the bridge span between two large signs warning that the clearance was 10 feet, 9 inches, photographs from WSYR-TV showed. The top level of the bus was crushed and partially peeled back in the front.

The driver of the bus had head injuries, Onondaga County sheriff's deputy Herb Wiggins told The Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse.

The bus left Philadelphia at 10 p.m. Friday and was headed for Toronto with stops in Syracuse and Buffalo, said Don Carmichael, a senior vice president at Coach USA, which operates Megabus. He said he didn't know why the bus was off its route but was headed to the crash site early Saturday to investigate.

The crash shut down the parkway.

Megabus also serves Minnesota, operating routes from the Twin Cities to Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison.

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