Crews worked for nearly 45 minutes to free a teenager after an SUV was wedged under a parked yellow school bus during an apparent chain-reaction crash in West Philadelphia late Tuesday morning.
A large group of Philadelphia firefighters responded to the crash along Chestnut Street near 59th Street around 11:05 a.m.
An 18-year-old man was driving a Scion sedan eastbound on Chestnut when he swerved into the left lane and struck a BMW driven by a 19-year-old woman, Philadelphia police said.
The BMW wound up wedged under the unoccupied bus parked on the left-hand shoulder of Chestnut Street, police said. The sedan came to rest against the back of the SUV.
Firefighters focused their attention on the area of impact where at least one person was trapped. At one point they pulled the crashed sedan back to focus on the BMW and the trapped driver.
Around 11:45 a.m., firefighters pulled someone from the wreckage. A short time later that person was put in a waiting ambulance.
The 19-year-old woman was listed in critical condition at a nearby hospital, police said.
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It's unclear if anyone else was hurt.
Witnesses heard the loud sound caused by the crash.
“I heard a big, loud donk and I came outside and saw the car was under the bus,” neighbor Nydirah Skinner said.
Expect traffic trouble in the area as crews work to full clear the scene. Market Street can be used as an alternate route.
