

WEEHAWKEN — Two Manhattan-bound buses near the Lincoln Tunnel collided this morning, leaving 17 people injured, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Two of those people were seriously injured, agency spokesman Ron Marsico said. Information was not immediately available on which hospital they were taken to, he said.

The crash closed all outbound lanes of the Lincoln Tunnel for nearly three hours because the buses run in an express lane against the NJ-bound traffic. Bus service to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan was running on delays of 60-90 minutes and police were diverting buses through Hoboken.

The accident caused residual backups that choked the area highways on the first day of the workweek.

There are two-mile backups on the New Jersey Turnpike-Hudson County Extension (Interstate 78) between Exit 14 and the Newark Bay Bridge, due to volume, and two-mile backups on the Turnpike North, above Exit 14.



Port Authority police responded to the crash at 7:15 this morning. The crash involved an NJ Transit bus and a Martz Trailways bus, said Marsico. Traffic out of the city restarted about 10 a.m.

The Martz bus rear-ended a No. 168 NJ Transit bus, originating from Paramus, in the exclusive bus lane for the inbound Lincoln Tunnel, causing major damage to both buses and sending the NJ Transit bus operator and five passengers to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, said NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr.

The Port Authority Police Department is investigating the crash.

Star-Ledger staff writer Mike Frassinelli contributed to this report.

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