THERMOS IN THE PEDALS

Best guess in deadly ’17 bus crash

A travel coffee mug lodged between the brake and accelerator pedals of a charter bus likely caused a horrific 2017 Queens crash that left three people dead, officials said Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a photo of a re-creation of the mug stuck in the pedals of the charter bus that crashed into an MTA bus early in the morning on Sept. 18 that year.

The crash at the intersection of Main Street and Northern Boulevard in Flushing killed the charter operator, a passenger on the city bus and a pedestrian. It also injured 16 other MTA passengers and drivers and pedestrians.

There were no passengers on the charter bus at the time.

The photo, which the NTSB released as part of its final report on the crash, shows a mug wedged underneath the brake and on top of the gas pedal of the charter bus.

Investigators believe the mug rolled onto the floor of the bus and between the pedals while driver Raymond Mong was at the wheel, causing the vehicle to accelerate when he meant to stop.

“At the scene of the crash, investigators found a metal Thermos bottle near the control pedals,” the federal report reads.

“The Thermos could potentially explain the metal rattling heard on the audio recording. The driver’s wife said he had taken his Thermos for the trip.”

Investigators say they can’t definitively say if the travel mug caused the crash. The NTSB’s official finding of probable cause was “the driver’s unintended acceleration of the motor coach and inability to brake for reasons that could not be conclusively determined from the information available.”

“It’s a strange story, and it’s hard to figure out,” said NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss.

Another photo released just days after the devastating crash shows that the speedometer of the charter bus, which ran a red light before crashing into the MTA vehicle, was stuck at 60 mph, more than double the speed limit on the street.

Investigators also found that Mong, who had been an MTA bus driver, was illegally working for the Flushing-based tour company Dahlia Group Inc. because of a previous arrest for driving while intoxicated.

Officials at Dahlia, which has a scathing safety record full of federal violations, did not return requests for comment.

The company still operates bus tours up and down the East Coast.

UNLUCKY: A re-created-scenario photo by investigators shows a travel mug wedged between the gas and brake (above) — the likely cause of a charter-bus crash into an MTA bus in Queens (top left) that killed three.