By Steve Gorman
A bus carrying members of a high school marching band on a trip to a music camp ran off a highway and tumbled down a steep embankment in New York state on Thursday, killing two people and injuring dozens of others.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, speaking at a news conference hours later, said it appeared that "a faulty front tire contributed to the accident," though the cause of the wreck remained under investigation.
A deputy superintendent for the New York State Police said two adult women on the bus as passengers died in the wreck and several passengers were in critical conditions.
Dozens of others suffered minor bumps and bruises and were seen walking around the scene after the crash.
In a Facebook posting, an individual named Ray Eugenio wrote that his grandson was among those injured in the wreck and asked for prayers.
"He was involved in a very serious accident and we do not know the extent of his injuries," the posting said. The account could not be independently verified.
The crash occurred in early afternoon along Interstate 84 near the town of Wawayanda, about 75 miles (120 km) northwest of New York City near the border with New Jersey. The New York State Police said in a posting on social media that the westbound lanes of the highway were closed at that point.
Aerial footage broadcast by local media from the crash scene showed the coach-style bus on its side amid trees and brush at the bottom of an embankment between the east and westbound lanes of the divided highway. The bus appeared largely intact, with debris from the vehicle strewn nearby.
The bus had been carrying members of a high school band from the Long Island village of Farmingdale in Nassau County on a trip to a band camp in Greeley, Pennsylvania, according to a statement from the Farmingdale School District posted by local media.
Five other buses headed to the camp as part of the trip, an annual outing of the marching band, according to the school district, headed back to Farmingdale after the crash, local media reported.
There was no word on whether any other vehicles were involved. Weather in the area was clear at the time.
Video from the scene showed the overturned motor coach bearing the logo for Regency Buses, a regional bus line that serves New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Doina Chiacu, Kanishka Singh and Rami Ayyub in Washington, Rich McKay in Atlanta and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Bill Berkrot)
