2 Dozen Kids Rattled In UES Bus Accident

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

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EMS units respond to a school bus accident on Manhattan's Upper East Side on May 21, 2010.

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One after another, children, 8 and 9 years old, were properly secured and carefully removed from the bus for medical evaluation. In all, 24 kids and three adults were hurt in the crash.

"It's just precautionary, just making sure the children are OK. Every one of the kids are doing real well," said EMS Dep. Chief Steven Morelli.

It happened around 11 Friday morning on E. 63rd Street between First and Second Avenues at the end of a ramp off the 59th Street Bridge. Aboard were 24 children and several adults.

"Three adults were not complaining of injuries. All the children are being checked out," said Morelli.

Police and fire officials said it happened when the driver of the bus tapped the rear end of a small car, causing the bus to stop short.

"It was just a minor bus accident, a low impact between the bus and a private car," said Morelli.

Because the impact was so slight, the car, believed to be an older Toyota, was allowed to leave the scene. But aboard the bus, there were some bruises among some of the children who got knocked around.

The students, from PS 149 in Brooklyn, were on a field trip to Lincoln Center. Eleven were transported to a hospital, and that was only as a precaution after being checked-out at the scene.

"We have one of our department's physicians here that's here to evaluate the children, as we do with accidents such as this, where there's a large volume of patients," said Morelli.

The children, not transported to New York Hospital, were taken back to their school, after a harrowing morning that was possibly more memorable than any trip to Lincoln Center.