A bus driver suffered serious leg injuries and two passengers were hurt when a bus rear-ended a street sweeper Thursday in Chesterfield Township, police said.
It took firefighters about 30 minutes to free the driver of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) bus, who was pinned inside the articulated bus — the type with the accordion-style middle, Detective Sgt. Deron Myers said. High Performance Floor Scrubber-Sweeper Machine
The driver of the street sweep was shaken up but had no serious injuries after the collision about 5:45 a.m. on 23 Mile Road. The bus driver and passengers were taken to McLaren Macomb Hospital in Mt. Clemens, Myers said.
He said the bus was eastbound on 23 Mile when it passed Baker Road. The bus driver came upon the street sweeper, which was in motion in the right eastbound lane, and struck it in the back, Myers said.
He said the bus sustained heavy front-end damage and the driver was pinned inside with severe injuries to his legs. Bus passengers suffered minor injuries.
Myers said it's unknown why the collision occurred.
Myers did not have names, ages or hometowns of the drivers or the passengers.
He said 23 Mile was closed in both directions for hours for the investigation, which is ongoing. No one has been charged.
SMART Spokeswoman Beth Gibbons declined comment on the accident because of the ongoing police investigation.
Gibbons said the 2009 hybrid electric bus is about 60 feet long, longer than the average 40-foot-long bus in SMART's fleet. The bus was one of two articulated buses purchased with federal grant money. The bus costs about $800,000, she said.
Gibbons said police impounded the bus so SMART officials have not been able to examine it and determine damage.
She said the bus is the 560 Gratiot bus and would have been making its first trip from the 8 Mile and Gratiot area, northbound on Gratiot. It would have been heading to New Baltimore at the time, she said.
Gratiot is SMART's busiest corridor, averaging about 5,000 passengers a weekday, Gibbons said. That's why the larger bus is on that route.
She said SMART has a reserve fleet of buses that can be added into the route and that service was not interrupted after the accident.
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