An MTA bus fatally struck and dragged a woman for nearly half a mile in lower Manhattan before the driver stopped, police say.
The QM7 bus hit 58-year-old Bella-Yury Krementsova near near the Whitehall ferry terminal just after 5:30 p.m. Friday, the MTA said.
MTA bus driver Roger Weckworth was arrested Saturday, authorities said. He was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian causing injury and failure to yield to a pedestrian.
The 63-year-old was issued a desk apperance ticket at the time of his arrest and is due to return in December, police said.
Police on the scene said the bus dragged Krementsova for nearly half a mile, the driver not realizing anyone was hit. Passengers and bystanders alerted the driver, saying they thought the bus had hit something.
Witness Benjamin Layton said people on the street screamed for the driver to stop.
"People jumped off the bus, even the driver jumped off the bus, and they looked 'cause they heard something dragging," he said. "They looked under there and there was something under there."
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"It looked like a bunch of clothes got caught up in the wheel, caught up under the axle of the bus," said Layton.
Chopper 4 first over the scene showed a number of FDNY firefighters gathered around the back end of the bus near Trinity Place and Exchange Place as they worked to extricate Krementsova from underneath the bus.
After about a half hour, she was removed from underneath the bus, with severe trauma to the head and body, police said. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
The bus driver was taken to Beth Israel Hospital as a precaution.
Leyton, who is a bus dispatcher, says he can understand why the driver may not have been aware he hit someone.
"A lot of things on the bus, you can't feel, especially if it's in the back," he said. "You're not able to feel it or see it. I mean, there's no telling how long this lady was under the bus."
