An out-of-control MTA bus flattened an unoccupied bistro’s street seating area and overturned a parked car in a whirlwind crash on the Upper East Side early Tuesday morning.
The M15 bus was cruising north on First Avenue when the driver lost control and slammed into the outdoor dining area and two parked vehicles near East 83rd Street shortly after 3:30 a.m., police said.
Shocking surveillance footage captured the bus showing no signs of stopping as it smashed into the empty street seats and parked cars.
The 36-year-old bus operator said the vehicle’s brakes stopped working, making the collision unavoidable, according to the NYPD.
She said she yanked on the emergency brake when the regular brakes apparently weren’t working moments before the bus barreled into the unoccupied cars, cops said.
The driver and a lone passenger on the bus both refused medical treatment at the scene, police said.
The restaurant, AOC East, was closed at the time of the crash.
It’s not immediately clear how far the bus’s trail of destruction extended.
Surveillance video captured the bus ramming into an orange sedan’s bumper and pushing it forward until it flipped upside-down. An unoccupied pickup truck was also pushed into the intersection by the bus, but didn’t topple.
The MTA said that the bus operator is being withheld from service pending an internal review and an NYPD investigation into the crash.
Part of the investigation will probe if the driver fell asleep at the wheel, ABC 7 reported.
