PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A 72-year-old passenger was killed and more than a dozen people were injured after two SEPTA buses collided Friday afternoon in the Rhawnhurst neighborhood of northeastern Philadelphia. The crash happened just after noon on Roosevelt Boulevard, near Shelmire Avenue.
It was an extremely terrifying afternoon for people on the buses. The hard collision injured 14 people, two of them critically. A man who was on the second bus showed CBS News Philadelphia what he saw.
“Someone was yelling, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,'” said Robert West Jr., a passenger, “as if they missed their stop or something.”
West was on bus number 14 on Friday afternoon, on his way to a haircut. But his day was derailed when the bus he was on crashed into the back of another SEPTA bus. Nearby surveillance videos show the moment those two buses collided.
“My phone flew out of my pocket,” said West. “A man in the other seat across the aisle, he flew out of his seat.”
Chopper 3 video shows people lying on the grass in front of the Roosevelt apartment houses, which had already been evacuated due to an unrelated fire alarm.
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Ada Marin waited in her car to go back in and watched the accident unfold right in front of her.
“There was a man holding his head, another man with blood down his leg,” Marin said. A man with blood on his arms. Someone collapsed here on this bus.’
According to the Philadelphia Police Department, one died and 13 people were injured in the crash, one of them critical.
West says he helped a man off the bus after the accident and he’s just glad he’s alive and able to walk away.
“Shocking. That’s all I can say,” said West. “It was shocking.”
The Philadelphia Police Department and SEPTA are still on the scene investigating what led to this crash. So far, there’s no word on when the crews will get this section of Roosevelt Boulevard reopened.
