NEW YORK CITY — Five people were hospitalized after a New York City-bound Megabus crashed into a guardrail on I-95 Friday afternoon, police officials said.
The bus, which had come from Washington, D.C., drove onto the right shoulder of the interstate and then smashed into a guardrail at about 3:39 p.m., Maryland State Police said in a statement.
The driver told police he believed the bus had had a mechanical failure, the state police said.
Of the 68 passengers on board and the driver, 5 were hospitalized at Harford Memorial Hospital as a precaution, police said. No further injuries were reported.
I-95 was shut down as the investigation ensued, police said.
Megabus released a statement Friday afternoon recapping the accident, and adding, "Safety is megabus.com's number one priority," a CBS affiliate in Baltimore reported.
Following a series of fatal crashes in 2011 through 2013, the city enacted a permitting process for intercity buses last May that requires bus companies to register all buses and follow a set of operational guidelines ensuring the safety of passengers and drivers. The move came months after the federal government shut down Fung Wah, a popular Chinatown bus company, after state inspectors found structural deficiencies and shoddy repairs on buses in the fleet, The New York Times wrote.
Fung Wah continues to struggle to reopen, according to The Boston Globe.
Megabus could not be reached for comment nor could the Maryland State Police for any updates on the injured victims or the cause of the crash.