Sheriff Kevin Walsh said driver was distracted when he crashed into railroad bridge.
Investigators examine the area around the bus driver at the scene of a fatal Megabus accident on Onondaga Lake Parkway after the bus was pulled upright. The bus hit the railroad bridge abutment at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday and rolled onto its side. Four people were killed.Update: The driver of a Megabus was using a personal global positioning system when he crashed into the Onondaga Lake Parkway railroad bridge Saturday, killing four people, Sheriff Kevin Walsh said this morning.
Authorities were unclear until now if he had his own GPS, or was using a device built into the bus itself.
Company officials have said it violates policy for drivers to use any GPS devices while driving. -- 11:50 a.m.
Salina, NY -- The driver of a double-decker bus that crashed into a rail bridge Saturday on Onondaga Lake Parkway was removed from the road by Megabus and won’t be paid while authorities investigate the crash that killed four people, a company official said Monday.
John Tomaszewski, 59, of Yardville, N.J., is expected to face a traffic violation of failure to obey traffic signs after the 2:30 a.m. crash, because he passed many warnings about the height of the bridge. Accident investigators are also researching if he can be charged with hitting the bridge itself, Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh said.
But District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said he wouldn’t make any decision on charges until scientific testing is completed. That would include an accident reconstruction and testing on blood obtained from the bus driver, he said.
Walsh has said there was no apparent involvement of drugs or alcohol in the crash, but Fitzpatrick said that might have been difficult to know since the driver suffered a head injury.
Killed in the crash were former Camillus resident Deanna Armstrong, 18, of New Jersey; Kevin Coffey, 19, of Kansas; Ashwani Mehta, 34, of India; and Benjamin Okorie, 35, of Malaysia. Two others remained hospitalized locally: Lo Wah Chu, 55, of Pennsylvania, in critical condition at University Hospital, and Mabel Tabb, 79, in stable condition at Crouse Hospital. Another man, Carl Kerr, 51, was transferred from Crouse Hospital to a hospital near his hometown of Philadelphia.
A mystery emerged Monday about the role of a global positioning system in the crash.
Walsh said Tomaszewski told investigators he was using GPS to find his way after missing the entrance to the Regional Transportation Center. But the GPS in the Megabus is equipped only to send data back to a company office and does not include any mapping software, said Don Carmichael, senior vice president of Coach USA, which owns Megabus.
Any use of company or private GPS systems for directions by drivers is prohibited, Carmichael said. Investigators are still determining what Tomaszewski was doing.
While Tomaszewski said he was driving 35 mph, the GPS system showed he was going faster than that but under the speed limit of 55 mph, Carmichael said.
Tomaszewski has been “withheld from driving” without pay during the investigation, Carmichael said.
The state Department of Transportation, which operates the road and has taken responsibility for the safety measures on the parkway, refused to give interviews Monday.
Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney sent a letter Monday to the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council asking that the council immediately launch a safety study of the parkway, “with a specific focus on incidents like the one that occurred this past weekend.”
“While we recognize that no road in any jurisdiction can be made completely accident proof,” Mahoney wrote, “Saturday’s accident absolutely points to the fact that more can and should be done to make this corridor safer.”
Martin Skahen, speaking for Mahoney, said the parkway is a state road and the county has no formal involvement.
By Monday afternoon, all of the survivors who were not seriously injured in the crash had reached their destinations, Carmichael said. Coach USA made arrangements for some people to leave Syracuse Sunday and the rest left Monday, he said.
The company also provided transportation for relatives to visit those in the hospital. Travelers did not have to take Coach USA buses, but could take other transportation, such as air travel, Carmichael said.
Tomaszewski was released Sunday night from Upstate University Hospital and returned home to New Jersey, Carmichael said. Company officials had not yet questioned him at length about the crash.
Staff writers Glenn Coin and Jim O’Hara contributed to this report.
» 18-year-old woman killed in Megabus crash planned to move back to Syracuse
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