Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Provides Update on Crash in Flushing, Queens

September 18, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: We’ve had a really tragic morning here in Flushing, Queens. Just shocking – you see the scene over there. Hard to compare to anything I’ve ever seen – the sheer destruction from the impact of this collision.

We have, so far, three people who have passed away and our prayers are with their families. We have 16 who have been injured, several of whom are critical and are fighting for their lives right now.

This is an absolutely – very painful moment. We know that one of those who was lost was simply walking down the sidewalk on Monday morning, maybe on their way to work, and out of nowhere this happens.

I want to thank all of those who responded so quickly – the NYPD, FDNY, MTA, our sister agencies with the State. Everyone immediately came to the scene to address the situation. I also want to thank the Office of Emergency Management, Department of Buildings because that building back there also suffered an impact, and work is being done right now to make sure it is secure and that it is not posing a danger itself. The impact of this collision on the building was very, very substantial.

The injured have all been taken to the hospital – several  hospitals in the area. We’re going to focus on, first and foremost, making sure that that the community here is safe and that that building is safe and obviously the investigatory work that’s being done between the MTA, FDNY, NYPD, and then we’ll work in the next few hours to clear the area and try and get things back to normal as much as possible.

With that I want to turn to the Chair of the MTA, Joe Lhota.

MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It’s a sad day when three fellow New Yorkers perish while they’re getting to work. The data, the facts are as the Mayor laid them out – we have 16 people that are in the hospital. Three New Yorkers have perished. And as we’re all concerned – we’ll go through the investigation as well with the PTSB, the State authority that will look into this. Very concerned about the speed. But the most important thing is safety, and we want to make sure that we understand exactly what happened and we prevent this from ever happening again.

Mayor: Let me say at the outset, this is very early in the investigation. We obviously know that this tour bus and the MTA bus had a collision but we don’t know enough yet about the specific details. We do not yet have a reliable videotape to work from. So, you may have some questions but I want to caution that we have only limited information at this point, very preliminary stage of the investigation.

Let me see if there’s any initial questions –

Question: The other two who died at the scene, were they in the bus, were they hit on the sidewalk, were they in the stores? Do you know?

Mayor: So one on the street, Chief do you want to speak to the other two?

NYPD Assistant Chief Juanita Holmes: Yes. Hi. Good morning everyone. Yes, we have a total of three fatalities. So, one was pronounced at the hospital, one was actually still on scene, and another one was moved to the hospital and pronounced which was the driver of the tour bus.

Question: The driver of the tour bus?

Chief Holmes: Yes.

Question: What about –

Mayor:  The driver, the pedestrian, and who was the third Chief?

Chief Holmes: One is still on the scene –

Lhota: With a pin.

Chief Holmes: So one was on the sidewalk which was a pin job, and another one that was on the bus, and then the driver of the tour bus.

Lhota: The MTA bus.

Question: The driver of the tour bus is one of the dead?

Chief Holmes: Yes.

Question: Okay.

Mayor: Yes, go ahead.

Question: And was the other one on the tour bus a – on the MTA bus?

Chief Holmes: MTA bus, yes.

Mayor: [Inaudible] MTA. Yes?

Question: Mayor, this corridor has been, for years, on the DOT’s list of the most dangerous in the city. Will this reopen or add any urgency to making safety improvements which we know are already underway. But this is already up there with the deadliest sections of the city, what can you –

Mayor: You know, look, as part of Vision Zero we’re constantly changing intersections and improving them. Queens Boulevard is the most powerful example. That used to be a nightmare and thank God we have not had a fatality now in quite a while. We’re certainly going to look at this intersection. The first thing we need to understand is what happened here, because we do not know exactly what happened here, if anybody was specifically at fault or how it played out. But of course we’ll look at the intersection itself to see if there’s anything else that we have to do to improve the situation.

Question: Mr. Mayor, do we know which way the buses were going? Which one was coming from what direction?

Chief Holmes: Yes, so the tour bus was traveling – the tour bus was traveling on Northern Boulevard traveling east. The MTA was traveling on Main Street and proceeded to make a right hand turn eastbound on Northern Boulevard when it was struck by the tour bus.

Mayor: Do you want to finish up?

Question: [Inaudible] mention the speed, you’re concerned about speed. What is it, very preliminarily that concerns you [inaudible] information do you have that makes you think that speed may have been a factor?

Chairman Lhota: Look I’m going to let the investigation go ongoing but as we’ve observed these buses spun around, that requires an enormous amount of speed. And I agree whole heartedly with the Mayor and his whole approach towards Vision Zero that we need to maintain a certain level of low speed in the City of New York. Let’s wait until the investigation happens so we’ll get a better idea of what actually caused this.

Mayor: Okay let’s see if there is anything else. Again, this is a very preliminary stage of the investigation.

Go ahead.

Question: Do you know how long the MTA driver has been working and driving?

Unknown: Ten years.

Chairman Lhota: He’s ten years on the job.

Question: And was this their regular route?

Unknown: Yes.

Chairman Lhota: Yes, it is.

Mayor: Okay.

Question: What’s the status of the MTA driver?

Chairman Lhota: The MTA driver is in the hospital and in non-critical condition. And he’s being spoken to right now by investigators.
           
Mayor: Thank you.

Question: How many people were on the MTA bus at that time?

Chairman Lhota: 15 people were on the MTA bus.

Mayor: Okay, we’ll get back to you more later on with other updates. Thanks everyone.