David Shepardson
(Reuters) – The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Saturday it would investigate a Freightliner box truck-bus crash that killed six people in Louisville, New York.
The crash, which happened around 6:02 a.m. Saturday on State Highway 37 in the small town of St. Lawrence near the Canadian border also resulted in three serious and critical injuries to people who were then transported to a local hospital in New York State Police said. The NTSB said it is launching a six-member team to investigate the crash.
Local TV station WWNY said roads were covered in snow and visibility was poor at the time of the crash. Photos of the devastating accident published by WWNY showed that it was a 2021 Penske rental truck – a Freightliner box truck. State police said the other vehicle was a 2013 Express bus. The crash closed the highway around 12 p.m.
Traffic deaths in the US have risen dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as more drivers behaved unsafely following the COVID-19 lockdown. The number of people killed in the first six months of 2022 is the highest since 2006.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said earlier this month that in the first half of 2022, the number of deaths in traffic accidents involving at least one large truck increased by 10%.