QUEENS — A school bus driver who collided with cars and an MTA bus Thursday, injuring 16 people, was charged with trying to flee the scene, officials said.
School bus driver Jean Louie, 47, was attempting to make a left turn from 108th Street on the Horace Harding Expressway at 2:30 p.m. when he jumped the divider, ramming into a minivan and other cars, then hitting an MTA bus heading north, witnesses and officials said.
He was caught by police trying to flee the scene, witnesses said.
Sixteen people were injured, four seriously, and were taken to Forest Hills Hospital, FDNY officials said.
"Instead of trying to wait [for the light] at the intersection, he squeezed through two cars and then hit my car and the [MTA] bus," said Howard Miller, of Long Island, who was driving the minivan. "He just took off. But someone managed to call the police and track him down."
Transit officials confirmed that most of those hurt were passengers. The MTA bus driver was also injured, and an unknown number of people in the cars were hurt, officials said.
Louis was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and faces up to four years in prison if convicted, a spokesman from the Queens District Attorney's Office said on Friday.
