At least five people died when a tourist bus carrying 54 passengers, including tourists from India, China, and the Philippines, crashed on a New York highway near Pembroke while returning from Niagara Falls.
New York Bus Crash (Photo Captions: ANI)
At least five people died when a tourist bus crashed on a highway in New York while returning from Niagara Falls. Reports say the bus, carrying 54 passengers, included tourists from India, as well as visitors from China and the Philippines.
The accident occurred about 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Buffalo as the group was traveling back to New York City. Authorities stated that the driver was distracted, causing the crash.
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New York State Police Commander Major Andre Ray told AFP, “It’s believed the driver became distracted, lost control, over-corrected, and ended up… over there.”
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Of the 54 passengers on board, five were killed, while the rest were not in life-threatening condition, Ray added. The bus had been on a day trip to Niagara Falls, near the Canada–US border, before the accident occurred on a highway near Pembroke.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday announced that the United States has immediately stopped issuing visas for truck drivers, soon after a fatal crash raised anger within President Donald Trump’s base.
“Effective immediately, we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio wrote on X.
“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” he wrote.
Senator Rubio acted after a truck driver was charged with killing three people in a Florida highway crash caused by an illegal U-turn.
The driver, Harjinder Singh from India, allegedly entered the U.S. illegally through Mexico and failed an English test following the accident, according to federal officials. The case has drawn major media attention and turned political, with Florida officials—under Trump’s Republican leadership—highlighting it prominently. On Thursday, the state’s lieutenant governor even flew to California with immigration agents to extradite Singh.
The crash has become a flashpoint between Republicans and Democrats. Singh had obtained his commercial license and lived in California, a Democratic-run state opposed to Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Trump administration blamed California Governor Gavin Newsom for granting Singh a license. Newsom’s office countered that Singh’s work permit was issued by Trump’s federal government, while California cooperated in extraditing him.
Even before the incident, Republican lawmakers had targeted foreign truck drivers, pointing to rising crash numbers without offering proof of a direct link to immigrants.
In June, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered that truck drivers must demonstrate English proficiency. U.S. commercial licenses already require basic English knowledge, including road signs. However, Obama-era 2016 guidance—reversed by Duffy—had instructed authorities not to disqualify drivers solely for language barriers.
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