A minivan collided with a GUTS bus this afternoon as the bus attempted a U-turn into the university’s Canal Road entrance, sending the van’s passengers to the hospital.

Dupont bus driver Noel Tiongson was on his way to the garage for his lunch break when he made the difficult U-turn off of Canal Road up the driveway to the GUTS bus depot near the Jesuit Residence. He was the only person on the bus. A tan Toyota Sienna LE minivan with diplomatic license plates collided with the back of the bus as it completed its U-turn.

A Metropolitan Police Department officer on the scene said he could not be sure of the number either as all the passengers “had been transported to the hospital” by the time he arrived on the scene. Their status has not been confirmed.

Tiongson, a GUTS bus driver since 2001, said he called 911 after the crash, and that some of the van’s passengers looked as though they may have sustained minor injuries.

Driving east on Canal Road involves a slow U-turn in order to navigate onto Georgetown’s campus.

“When I made my turn, [the] car was at the second green sign back there,” he said, indicating a spot about halfway between the Canal Road entrance to campus and the Key Bridge entrance.

“He didn’t expect I’d have to stop almost to a crawl,” Tiongson said. The car was in the farthest left lane when it turned into the bus.

After the accident occurred, Tiongson called his supervisors. A DPS officer who happened to be driving down the road just a few cars behind the minivan was “on the scene in just a matter of seconds,” Tiongson said. GERMS was also on the scene in less than 10 minutes. DPS officers on the scene declined to comment.

The van was towed away at approximately 2:45 pm this afternoon. Its front airbags were both inflated, the entire front bumper was lying in the street in front of the car, the left headlight was cracked and the right was completely shattered. The van’s wiper fluid bin was visible, cracked and hanging out the right side of the front of the car, and the right front tire was misshapen and deflated.

PD is still investigating the cause of the crash.

“