14 treated after bus-van collision in Frankford

At least 14 people went to hospitals after a SEPTA bus collided with a van in the Frankford section of the city yesterday, authorities said.

The accident, which occurred shortly after 3 p.m., was violent enough to send the bus into a support structure of the Market-Frankford El, authorities said.

The impact did not significantly damage the support structure, at Kensington and Hunting Park Avenues, and El service was not disrupted, SEPTA reported.

Several passengers, the bus driver, and two people in the van were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening, officials said.

Officials last night said they were investigating witness accounts indicating that the driver of the van appeared to have been talking on a cell phone just before the crash.

About 21/2 hours after that incident, a 14-year-old girl was critically injured when struck by a bus near 12th and Wallace Streets. SEPTA said the teenager was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital with head injuries.