Many injured in Route 42 bus collision in Monticello

Around 3:40pm, a Jeep Cherokee collided with a ShortLine bus on Route 42 in Monticello, leaving the driver of the Jeep critically injured and injuring many of the bus's passengers.

CatskillScoop reported around 3:45pm that members of the Catskills Hatzalah emergency response squad were on the scene.

The blog has posted many photos from the scene, taken by Yoel Goldstein. In them, the Jeep is badly crumpled, and numerous people are being put into ambulances on body boards and stretchers.

The Times Herald-Record has a fuller account of the accident, which a witness said was caused after the Jeep collided with a work truck going the same direction:

The Jeep and a work truck were in adjacent northbound lines when they collided around 3:40 p.m. as the two lanes merged into one near the Dunkin Donuts on 42, according to witness Jamie Davis.

The front of the truck clipped the Jeep's rear, sending it hurtling sideways into the southbound lane and crashing drivers-side-first into a bus heading into Monticello, Davis said.

“He flipped sideways and went all the way across and then I heard a bang,” he said.

Eight bus passengers were injured, as well as a passenger in the work truck, the Times Herald-Record reports.