Driver claims he was driven off road in New York bus crash that killed 14

(AP)

Police are investigating a bus driver's claim that he was driven off a major highway in New York before his bus slid into a signpost that sheared it end to end, killing 14 people and leaving others maimed. The driver, Ophadell Williams, told police that a tractor-trailer clipped his World Wide Tours bus just as it crossed the city line on a trip from the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut.

However, state police said witnesses have told that them Williams was speeding before Saturday morning's crash on Interstate 95. The crash, one of the deadliest bus accidents in years, killed people who had travelled for an overnight trip to the casino and were returning to New York's Chinatown. They were aged 20 to 50.

Captain Matthew Galvin of the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit was one of the first rescuers on the scene. He said when officers clambered into the wreckage, they found "bodies everywhere". "People were moaning and screaming for help," he said. Some of the dead were tangled up with the living. Though dazed, about seven people were able to walk away from the wreck on their own, he said.

Captain Galvin added that in his 22 years on the job, "it's probably the worst accident I've ever seen in terms of the human toll".

Around 20 people were treated at local hospitals. Nine, including the bus driver, remain in hospital.