According to witnesses and police reports, the driver and passenger of a silver Jeep were hospitalized following a collision in the Bronx on Monday afternoon. The incident occurred when the Jeep ran a red light and crashed into a yellow school bus transporting special needs students.

The impact triggered a chain-reaction accident, damaging two additional vehicles. The incident took place around 3:15 p.m. as the northbound Jeep traveled along the Hutchinson River Parkway service road. The driver neglected to stop at the traffic light located near Co-op City in Baychester, specifically at the West Einstein Loop North.

According to the police, the vehicle forcefully collided with a yellow school bus that was traveling in an eastbound direction. This impact caused both vehicles to rebound and crash into a southbound Chrysler Sebring, which had three occupants, as well as a Co-op City maintenance van.

“I heard a boom, a loud boom,” said witness Justice Kwansa, a pharmacist at Mount Sinai Hospital in the Bronx. “I was in my slippers and started running.”

He said that he jumped on the Jeep and tried to pull out the passenger and the driver.

“Someone said it, ‘It’s going to explode,’ and I figured that it was my day to die,” Kwansa said.

The school bus driver and the majority of the passengers, including a pregnant school attendant, an 8-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a 14-year-old, escaped with non-serious injuries. However, a 21-year-old man with special needs sustained critical injuries. All of them were transported to Jacobi Medical Center. On the other hand, the driver of the Jeep became trapped inside the vehicle.

“The driver was trying to get out, but he was pinned,” Kwansa said. “Everybody was screaming. It was chaos. The kids [on the bus] were panicking.”

The occupants of the Sebring, including the driver and two passengers, fortunately did not sustain significant injuries. Prompt action by first responders allowed them to extricate both the driver and passenger from the Jeep, who were then transported to Jacobi Medical Center.

The driver’s condition was reported as stable, while the passenger remained in critical condition as of Monday night.