Bus driver in deadly Queens crash had DUI record

A New York City transit bus and a Dahlia tour bus collided, spinning around before slamming into a building in the city's borough of Queens, New York, US, September 18, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

NEW YORK — The driver of a tour bus killed in a spectacular collision with a city bus in Flushing, Queens on Monday previously had been fired by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) when it learned of his prior drunken driving arrest.

The crash in the busy intersection killed two other people and injured 19, according to the MTA. Four of the injured were in critical condition as of Monday evening.

The tour bus driver, Raymond D. Mong, was dismissed as an MTA driver in 2015 after he slammed his car into two other cars on Interstate 95 near New Haven, Connecticut, and then fled the scene, according to police and the MTA, The New York Times reported.

Mong, 49, received a suspended sentence and was placed on 18 months' probation after being convicted of driving under the influence and evading arrest.

Mong was later hired as a driver for Dahlia Group Inc of Flushing, whose buses have been involved in prior major highway accidents.

In February 2003, two passengers died and 28 were hurt when a Dahlia bus traveling from Manhattan to Atlantic City skidded off the road and landed on its side. In February 2016, a Dahlia bus ended up on its side traveling from New York to the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, injuring 14 passengers.

In video of Monday's crash provided by WABC-TV, the MTA bus is seen making a right turn from Main Street onto major thoroughfare Northern Boulevard just after 6:15 am when the Dahlia bus, proceeding down the boulevard, barrels into it.

The crash knocked the charter bus, which was not carrying any passengers, onto the sidewalk and into a Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurant, starting a small fire that the FDNY quickly extinguished.

"The bus came barreling down the street so fast, so fast, it was like an airplane," Tammy Yew, 77, told the Times, in Mandarin. Yew was waiting in the median at Northern Boulevard.

A picture of the Dahlia bus' speedometer showed it stuck at 60 mph, double the speed limit in the intersection, abcnews.go.com.

Also killed were a passenger on the MTA bus and a passer-by who was run over, according to officials. Reports said the other victims were Gregory Liljefors, 55, and Henry Wdowiak, 68.

Dahlia has been cited for prior speeding violations, according to federal records, and was prioritized by federal officials for unannounced inspections, said a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration official, the ABC website reported. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate Monday's crash.