Five people – including two teenagers – were hospitalized Thursday following an accident involving a sports utility vehicle and a school bus carrying special needs children on Glen Cove Road in East Hills that backed up traffic in both directions, police said.
The crash occurred at around 9 a.m. near Harbor Hill Road as the school bus was traveling southbound to a nearby school collided with a Chevrolet Suburban traveling northbound, said Det. Michael Lynch of the Old Westbury Police Department.
The cause of the crash was unknown and an investigation is still ongoing, Lynch said.
Eyewitness photographs taken of the accident purportedly show the bus sustained damage to the front driver’s side, while the Suburban sustained damage to the passenger’s side.
East Hills resident Bill Spitalnick, who took the eyewitness photographs, said he was walking his dog near Westwood Circle and noticed traffic being directed from Glen Cove Road through the Norgate development.
Upon walking out to the road, Spitalick said, he saw someone from the bus being removed by a stretcher and emergency workers extracting the driver of the sport utility vehicle from the passenger’s side of the automobile.
“I see this road every day because I enter Glen Cove Road regularly, it’s about a 30 or 40 [mile per hour speed] limit, and I see cars doing 60 and over. I see trucks, big semis loaded up doing more than 60,” Spitalnick said. “Everybody thinks they can rush that part of Glen Cove Road and get to the expressway and you see a lot of fast movement over there. There’s probably accident there at least once a week.”
A bus driver and three passengers, including 14-year-old and 19-year-old students, were taken to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, Lynch said.
The driver was treated for a broken rib, while the two students and a driver’s aide were treated for facial injuries after being struck with broken glass, Lynch said. All have been released.
The teenagers were described as autistic students living within the Herricks and Wheatley school districts, Lynch said.
The motorist operating the Suburban, described as a male in his mid-60s, was taken to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset for treatment of “severe injuries to his legs, fractures,” Lynch said. He remained hospitalized overnight, Lynch said.
Nassau County Police, which also responded to the accident, briefly closed southbound lanes on Glen Cove Road following the accident. They were reopened at around 10:45 a.m., according to a media advisory issued by police.
