DEADLY SPEED
Tour bus driver hits MTA bus at 50 mph Kills two and self after blowing red light
A CONVICTED drunken driver barreling down a Queens thoroughfare in a charter bus owned by a company with a record of safety violations blew a red light and plowed into the back of a city bus — killing himself and two other people.
The deadly smashup shattered the predawn calm on Northern Blvd. in Flushing, destroying a restaurant, leaving passengers and pedestrians bloody and panicked and turning the area near Main St. into a disaster scene.
Henry Wdowiak, 68, of Flushing, was one of the three victims. The Polish immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1993 after serving as a military pilot was fatally pinned by one of the buses, authorities said.
His devastated wife said Wdowiak was on the street because he had just started a fitness regimen that included walking as much as possible.
“It was his first day walking,” said Helina Kurpiewska, 64. “My son had to tell me what happened. I’m in shock . . . I still expect him to come home. I can’t believe it.”
Kurpiewska, a hotel housekeeper, married Wdowiak 10 years ago and called him a “great family man.”
Wdowiak worked as a floor maintenance man for a real estate company and was on his way to one of the company’s buildings when he was killed, she said.
His stepson Marcin Kurpiewski, 37, said Wdowiak was like his real father.
“When the police called me I had to pull over. They said he died instantly,” Kurpiewski, a fire alarm technician, said.
“My knees gave out. I couldn’t believe it . . . . We never thought we’d lose him this way.” A total of 17 people were injured: the MTA bus driver, his 14 passengers and two people who were sitting in a nearby car.
Six of the people who were hurt were listed in critical condition Monday night. Mayor de Blasio said several victims were fighting for their lives.
The tour bus driver, Raymond Mong, 49, died at Elmhurst Hospital Center.
Friends and family gathered at his College Point home, speaking mostly Cantonese and struggling to make sense of the terrible day.
“Among my friends, no one says any bad word about him. He’s a family person. If he don’t work, he never go out. He never step out,” said David, a friend of 20 years.
He said Mong drank socially but — despite his history of driving while intoxicated — wouldn’t get behind the wheel if he weren’t sober.
“Honestly, he’s a good person. . . . I don’t think it was him that caused that accident, it’s something else,” he said. The third victim, Gregory Liljefors, 55, of Flushing, was a passenger on the Q20 and died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, authorities said.
Liljefors was mourned by his heartbroken stepson, Chazen Rivera, 34, who said his stepfather worked in the ticket booth at the Queens Zoo, and that his mother was devastated.
“We are all grieving,” he said. “He was perfect, just perfect.”
Witnesses described total mayhem.
“A lady was crying and screaming, ‘Get me out! Get me out!’ ” said Mike Ramos, 47, a construction superintendent who was sitting in his truck when the buses crashed.
“It was just chaos . . . . One guy had his head split open. A lady was pinned under debris there, in front of the bus. There was a lot of people hurt, a lot of people hurt. It was crazy.”
A Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurant was wrecked, and a T-Mobile store was badly damaged by the ricocheting buses. The FDNY put out a small fire and shut off leaking gas in a building. De Blasio said inspectors were still assessing the damage.
Video of the 6:16 a.m. crash showed the Q20 making a slow right turn from Main St. onto Northern Blvd.
The Dahlia Travel and Tours bus, empty of passengers and driven by Mong, came roaring through the intersection, traveling east on Northern Blvd. and careening into the left rear of the Q20.
The impact spun the 12-ton MTA bus nearly 180 degrees, and both buses stopped on the sidewalk, facing each other.
“The tour bus was flying,” said Ramos. “When they collided, I felt the vibration.”
Mong drove buses for the MTA until the agency pulled him off of the road in April 2015 after learning he’d been charged with a DUI, driving without insurance, leaving the scene and other counts. The
MTA officially fired him this past June.
It was unclear how long Mong had been driving for Dahlia, which since 2015 has been cited for seven unsafe-driving violations, including five for speeding.
It took less than a second for the Dahlia bus to cross the nearly 80-foot intersection. At that rate, it’s estimated that it was traveling more than 50 mph.
The totaled tour bus’ damaged speedometer was stuck at 60 mph.
The speed limit on Northern Blvd. is 25 mph.
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the crash.
“We’re looking at the human, the machine and the operating environment,” board spokesman Eric Weiss said.
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said the focus was on public safety.
“We want to make sure that we understand exactly what happened and that we prevent this from ever happening again.”
Yong Jun Kim of Flushing was able to leave New York-Presbyterian after the crash, despite three fractured ribs and injuries to his back. He’d been sitting near the front of the Q20 — but he couldn’t remember much about the crash.
“Bam! I was down on the ground,” said Kim, 57. “I blacked out . . . . A lot of people on the floor of the bus. They were down, their eyes closed. I passed out. I woke up here.”
A man who answered the phone at Dahlia’s office said the circumstances of the crash had not yet been determined. Company officials did not return requests for comment.