NYU bus hits woman on 3rd and 10th
‘The bus turned right into her’
Shocked bystanders watched as an NYU bus hit a pedestrian early this afternoon.
After departing at its usual time at 12.15pm, NYU’s Route F bus made an unexpected turn from its original route due to construction.
Instead of continuing on 3rd Ave, the bus went down 4th before returning to 3rd through 10th Street.
Five minutes after departing from 721 Broadway, near TD Bank and across the street from Alumni and Third North, the bus driver hit a pedestrian.
Senior Nicholas Bellone said: “I was listening to my music, playing a game on my phone, kinda just minding my own business.
“When the bus turned onto 3rd Ave, I heard a woman scream horribly.”
Freshman Steinhardt matriculant Anastasia Muravyeva said the pedestrian was an “African American woman” in her “mid-thirties”.
Anastasia added: “She had the right of way to cross, she was not crossing unlawfully, and the NYU bus turned right into her.
“It pushed her 20 feet, hit her twice, if not more, and slightly ran over her while she was on the ground.”
Students on the bus called 911 to report the incident, while the bus driver asked to borrow passengers’ cell phones to call “the dispatcher”.
Sophomore at Tisch Jaxon Thomley said: “The driver tried to explain to us what happened, as if to prove that he wasn’t at fault.
“I told him to not bother trying to justify it to us because whose fault it was didn’t concern us.”
Fortunately, there was an officer already in the area prior to the accident.
Paramedics and the police arrived on the scene to find the woman lying face down on the ground screaming.
Nicholas Bellone’s view from inside the bus
The three witnesses on the bus said it wasn’t moving fast, but it did considerable damage because of its size.
The woman was placed in a Mount Sinai Hospital ambulance, but her condition is unknown.
Passengers on the bus were required to stay on board for about 30 minutes while the NYPD and NYU Public Safety collected information from everyone on the bus.