US: Bus carrying Italian tourists collides with truck, killing 3

[webfact]

Bus carrying Italian tourists collides with truck, killing 3
MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press

TOBYHANNA, Pa. (AP) — A charter bus taking Italian tourists to Niagara Falls collided with a tractor-trailer that had crossed into oncoming traffic on a highway on Wednesday, killing the bus driver and two other people on the bus, police said. Four people were critically injured.

The crash occurred on Interstate 380 in the Pocono Mountains region in eastern Pennsylvania as the bus, which departed from New York, was about a quarter of the way to its first destination.

The mangled front end of the bus was upright on the highway but wedged into the side of the tractor-trailer, which was sheared in half. The cab of the truck came to rest on its side in the woods next to the road, one of its axles torn off.

The southbound tractor-trailer entered the northbound lanes of the divided highway, struck another truck and then was hit by the charter bus, said state police, who were investigating what caused the deadly chain of events Wednesday morning. A wide swath of grass was scraped away in the median.

Italian tour operator Viaggidea said there were 16 people on the bus: 14 passengers, a tour guide and the driver. Police said the driver, Alfredo Telemaco, of New York City, died at the scene along with two passengers.

The bus owner, Academy Bus, said the driver had more than a decade of experience with the company.

More than a dozen people were injured and taken to hospitals, where most were being treated for mild to moderate injuries. Monroe County coroner Robert Allen said the tractor-trailer driver, a Macomb, Oklahoma, man, didn't appear to have been severely injured.

Viaggidea spokeswoman Simona Nocifora said she did not have any information on the passengers, including where they were from in Italy.

After sightseeing in New York, the group was headed to Niagara Falls, then Toronto, Washington and Philadelphia, before returning to New York, according to an itinerary for the eight-day trip.

The tractor-trailer was owned by the Xtra Lease company. The company's attorney said officials did not know who was leasing the vehicle.

Johnny Walsh, who lives near the highway, told WCAU-TV that he heard a loud crash and "all of a sudden people were screaming."

Pop singer Gloria Estefan suffered a broken vertebra when a tractor-trailer crashed into her tour bus on the same stretch of highway in 1990 while heading to a concert in Syracuse, New York.

Wednesday's crash came less than a month after an Italian businessman died with seven other people when a speeding Amtrak train ran off the tracks in Philadelphia.
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Associated Press writers Ron Todt and Josh Cornfield in Philadelphia contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-04

[khwaibah]

RIP. Just remember the next time you complain about Thailand. It happens in the west.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

RIP. Just remember the next time you complain about Thailand. It happens in the west.

yes, road accidents do happen in every country in the world. The fact that Thailand has the 2nd highest road fatality stats in the world per capita is the issue most people comment on here. So what is your point? Thailand should just keep going on and letting over 25,000 people die on the highways every year? No point in education or enforcement???

[Shot]

RIP. Just remember the next time you complain about Thailand. It happens in the west.

True, but not very often with tourists. In Thailand, it's practically the national pastime.

[oneday]

You've got to be kidding. What a ridiculous comment to make.

Of course it happens; it happens in every country in the world, but not even close to how frequently it happens here.

[slipperylobster]

RIP. Just remember the next time you complain about Thailand. It happens in the west.

Not accurate.

The story plainly puts the blame on the tractor trailer. The bus was in good operating condition and the driver as not at fault.

Sooooooo ...unlike the uninspected buses and drunk/drugged up drivers here.

Story seems to be put in here to deceive people into believing All bus drivers are bad.

Curiously...this story is not international news.....Just a cheap shot at suckering in the misinformed.

[Mudcrab]

Wednesday's crash came less than a month after an Italian businessman died with seven other people when a speeding Amtrak train ran off the tracks in Philadelphia.

​Throw in a train derailment for good measure.

[Scott]

Please stay on topic.

I know the number one pastime is Thai bashing, followed by American bashing.

This thread is about the US and a traffic accident in which some people were killed so let's stick to that topic here.

[wabothai]

RIP. Just remember the next time you complain about Thailand. It happens in the west.

oh..........off

[Jimbolai]

Oooops, Italians? Brings back memories of

"---Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American young woman who spent almost four years in an Italian prison accused of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, one of the women who shared her apartment, before being definitively acquitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation. " -------

She was an American young woman studying in the land of the coliseums. She became a spectator sport for the totally callous Italians.

Ooops, Italy? Italian wine, Italian vacations? Not for me.

Sympathy for them? Not so much.

Am I being callous? Yes, but not anywhere as callous as the scum that kept her in prison and worse yet the scum cheering about it. , NOT!

[slipperylobster]

Wednesday's crash came less than a month after an Italian businessman died with seven other people when a speeding Amtrak train ran off the tracks in Philadelphia.

​Throw in a train derailment for good measure.

Not only that...the story gets even more intriguing.

8 or 9 died in holland... .australia...Luxembourg...and Bolivia.

Road accidents...can happen.

Definitely not a conspiracy against Italian passengers