TCAT bus hits wall at Ithaca College, sends three to hospital

A TCAT passenger, a TCAT bus operator trainer and a TCAT bus operator trainee were treated and released at Cayuga Medical Center after the bus hit a retaining wall at the Ithaca College Towers parking lot just before 6 p.m. Mon,, Aug. 24.A new TCAT bus operator driving the Route 11, who was being trained by an experienced TCAT bus operator, was making a loop when the bus hit the stone wall. The new bus operator and his bus operator trainer, as well as one passenger, were all taken to the hospital by Bangs Ambulance Co. All three were treated and released late Monday night.Three passengers on the bus were not injured, but provided contact information on the scene. New York State Police are investigating the accident. TCAT’s operations team is also investigating the accident. Ithaca College Public Safety also responded to the accident. The bus, which was heavily damaged, was towed back to TCAT.New bus operators are given extensive driver pre-training to include one-on-one driver training with TCAT supervisors (while not in service or actually servicing passengers.) They are also given two weeks of classroom and driving (not in actual service) training. They are then assigned to an experienced driver trainer to go out in actual passenger service for four weeks before going into service solo.