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Williamsport Phils Avert Near Disaster After Clones Game

Edgy DC Aug 03 2011 09:12 AM

Minor League bus nearly runs off overpass Single-A Williamsport narrowly avoids disaster in Staten Island By Joey Nowak / MLB.com | 08/03/11 10:05 AM ET A bus transporting the Phillies' Single-A Williamsport affiliate came dangerously close to running off an overpass late Tuesday night when the driver apparently became lost on the way home from a game and allegedly ran a red light. The bus was on its way from a night game against the Brooklyn Cyclones, a Single A affiliate of the Mets, when it was restrained on the overpass on Staten Island by a single guardrail. Six people suffered minor injuries, but many at the scene said it could have been much worse. At about 11:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, the Trailways bus containing 52 passengers apparently hit an SUV after the driver had become lost finding the way from the stadium on Coney Island to the team's Brooklyn hotel. In crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island, the driver realized his mistake before accidentally striking an SUV on the Fingerboard Road overpass. The SUV driver claims the bus ran a red light, according to a report by WABC-TV in New York. Witnesses say the bus ricocheted off the SUV and became hung up on the guardrail. Without it, officials said, the bus would surely have fallen off the overpass down into the embankment to the Staten Island Expressway below. Some passengers jumped from windows, while firefighters arrived on the scene to cut the bus off the guardrail. "Somebody just screamed, and we looked up, and we feel the car hit us," one passenger told WABC-TV. "And we hit the railing, and then and looked down, and we just see that we're literally five feet from falling off the railing. So thank God everybody's good, everybody is safe. We escaped from the window." According to the Cyclones' website, the regularly scheduled game at noon ET between the two teams Wednesday will be played as planned. ?Joey Nowak is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @joeynowak. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

themetfairy Aug 03 2011 09:17 AM Re: Williamsport Phils Avert Near Disaster After Clones Game

Wow - that could have been awful!