(The following story by Creighton Rabs appeared on the
Philadelphia Metro Transportation Examiner website on September 16, 2010.)
Philadelphia, P.A. — On the heels of a fatal accident in Upstate New York this past weekend, a double-decker coach owned by Coach USA based Megabus was involved in a minor accident with a SEPTA utility truck in University City this morning.
The accident occured at around 3:15 a.m. near 30th Street Station. According to witnesses on board the Washington-bound M21 bus, one of the cargo hatches on the curb side of the bus opened as the Van Hool TD925 double-decker coach #DD441 turned off of 32nd Street onto Market Street. The hatch door reportedly struck a SEPTA track department work truck; the loose door was torn off its hinges, rendering the coach inoperable.
Approximately 60 passengers were aboard the bus at the time of the accident. No injuries were reported. A replacement bus had arrived in Philadelphia at around 5:30 a.m. – nearly two hours after the incident. Several passengers were complaining that the driver had repeatedly stated the replacement bus would be arriving “within 20 minutes.” It was a statement that had been repeated at several intervals during the 2 hour ordeal.
This is the second accident involving a Megabus coach operating from or through Philadelphia in the past week. Four people were killed and four others, including the driver, were injured after a Megabus double-decker coach struck a low railroad underpass outside of Syracuse, N.Y.
The Toronto-bound M34 bus was en route from Philadelphia to Toronto when the driver reportedly missed his exit to the Regional Transportation Center in Syracuse and struck the railroad bridge on the Onondage Lake Parkway in Salina early Saturday morning.
The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office identified one of the deceased as an DeAnna Armstrong, 18, of Voorhees, N.J.; a second victim killed in the accident was identified as a Kansas native attending college in Philadelphia. All four of the dead were reportedly sitting in the upper deck of the coach at the time of the accident.