WARWICK, R.I. (WHDH) - A deer leapt through the windshield of a city bus in Warwick, R.I. Monday, officials confirmed.
Surveillance video from the bus shows the animal launching through the window, with glass shattering everywhere. The deer also hit a passenger sitting near the front of the bus.
Right before impact, the deer was running on the sidewalk. Police said that six people were on the bus and three passengers were injured from the broken windshield.
Witnesses who saw the crash said the moments after the crash were frantic. Barbara Mejia works at Savers Mart on the corner of Warwick Avenue and Sachem Avenue.
“Everybody was yelling, screaming, and I’m like ‘what the’ and I’m like ‘open the back door,’ and they all came running in here,” Mejia said.
She said she was standing outside shortly after 3 p.m. when she saw a young deer run from the wooded area behind the store and leap into oncoming traffic.
“I was like ‘Oh my God,’ and the next thing you know, it just leaped right into the bus when the bus was coming,” Mejia said.
Rick Alaire lives in the wooded area where the deer came from, which is just feet from the busy roadway. He said he came home minutes after the accident happened.
“It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen,” Alaire said. “I saw the driver’s side windshield totally blown out. What are the odds that no one was seriously hurt, that deer hit the bus at that angle, went into the bus.”
The deer did not survive.
“It was young, it’s sad. That was like one in a million, I couldn’t believe it, like everybody on the bus was like freaked out.”
The bus company commended the driver for his quick thinking and his composure during the situation.
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