Fourteen people were injured in a bizarre chain-reaction accident in the Third Ward yesterday involving a Trans Am, a Metro bus, an RV and a brake shop. It happened just after 5 p.m. as the bus was headed south on Dowling Street; while it was crossing the intersection at Pierce, a Trans Am headed east on Pierce ran a red light and slammed into the bus. The crash sent the bus careening off into the parking lot of the brake shop, where it hit an RV. The bus and RV then crashed into the wall of the brake shop, causing it to collapse. Among those injured were the Trans Am driver, the bus driver, some passengers on the bus and a brake shop employee who was hit by falling bricks when the wall collapsed.
Travis Jones, a passerby, stopped and helped one of the people in the Trans Am: "I just stopped the car and got out and ran over to him, and a guy was coming up with a knife, cutting the seatbelt lose and jerking him out of there and pulled him away from the car," Jones told KHOU. "He was screaming and hollering that his leg was broke, and I mean it was twisted pretty bad." Metro spokesman George Smalley said none of the injuries were too bad: "The good news in this is that nobody was more seriously injured," he said. Witnesses reported that the Trans Am ran the light, which indicates that the bus driver wasn't at fault. Police haven't issued any citations yet, but Metro will run a drug test on the bus driver as part of a routine investigation into the accident.
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