By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) – A bus carrying members of a high school marching band on a trip to a music camp rolled over and crashed on a highway in New York state on Thursday, killing at least one person and injuring dozens of others, authorities and news outlets reported.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul released a statement confirming a single fatality, which NBC’s New York affiliate station, citing an unnamed source familiar with the situation, said was an adult.
CNN, citing emergency officials, reported one person died and 49 students were injured, three of them severely. The network reported 45 of the students suffered minor bumps and bruises and were seen walking around the scene after the crash.
Few official details were immediately available. The crash occurred in early afternoon along Interstate 84 near the town of Wawayanda, about 75 miles (120 km) northwest of New York City near the border with New Jersey. The New York State Police said in a posting on social media that the highway was closed at that point.
Rescue authorities in Orange County, New York, said they were dealing with a “bus rollover” that they described as a “mass casualty” incident, without providing details.
Photos from the crash scene posted on social media showed the coach-style bus on its side down an embankment, surrounded by trees and brush.
The bus had been carrying members of a high school band from Farmingdale, New York, in Nassau County on a trip to a band camp in Greeley, Pennsylvania, according to a statement from the Farmingdale School District posted by local media.
“Police and emergency responders (are) on the scene, as well as district administration,” the statement said. It gave no further details.
Five other buses headed to the camp as part of the trip, an annual outing of the marching band, according to the school district, turned around and headed back to Farmingdale after the crash, local media reported.
There was no word on what caused the crash. Weather in the area was clear at the time.
“I have been briefed on the tragedy in Orange County where a bus filled with high school students was involved in an accident, leading to injuries and one fatality,” Hochul said in a statement.
Footage from the scene showed the overturned motor coach bearing the logo for Regency Buses, a regional bus line that serves New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Doina Chiacu, Kanishka Singh and Rami Ayyub in Washington and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Bill Berkrot)
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