2 tour buses collided on a bridge in Seattle: 4 dead

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Four people were killed and 12 critically injured Thursday when an amphibious tour bus collided head-on with a charter bus on a Seattle bridge, authorities said.

The fire department said 44 people were treated at area hospitals after the crash on the busy Aurora Bridge, which crosses a canal linking Lake Union with the Puget Sound's Shilshole Bay.

Local TV footage showed the side of the charter bus caved in with glass and debris on the ground. The Ride the Ducks amphibious bus, which had less damage, was missing its front wheel.

Traffic safety on the bridge, which has no median barrier, has been a concern of state and local officials.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said one of the buses had foreign students on board.

"We are contacting their consulates," he said in a news conference.

North Seattle College said students and staff from its International Program were on the charter bus. The college said it had no additional information.

A witness to the crash, Jesse Christenson, 32, saw the duck boat with its turn signal on trying to get in the left lane, and then it made a sharp move to the left.

"I initially thought it was a [tire] blowout. The duck boat then hit another car with a roof rack, then went head-on into the oncoming tour bus," Christenson told the Seattle Times newspaper. "The scene was pretty gruesome ... There were people in shock."

Four people died at the scene, authorities said. Among the 44 injured, 12 were in critical condition and 32 received non-life-threatening injuries.

The people on the charter bus suffered the majority of the significant injuries, a fire department spokeswoman said. Two other vehicles were involved in the crash, she said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families involved in today's tragic accident," Ride the Ducks said in a statement.

The accident comes nearly five months after an amphibious sightseeing vehicle hit and killed a woman on a Philadelphia street. In 2010, two tourists were killed when a tugboat pushed a barge into a Ride the Ducks vehicle, also in Philadelphia.

The company takes tourists on tours of Seattle and other US cities and features a quirky history lesson delivered by the driver that includes loud music and theatrical props.

The vessels resemble the amphibious transport trucks used by the US military in World War II.