A Honda Accord driven by an unlicensed 16-year-old smashed into a school bus in Westchester County on Wednesday, leaving three teenagers fighting for their lives.
Police have not released the names of the now-hospitalized teens, who were all riding in the Accord, according to NBC New York.
Cops say the 16-year-old driver lost control going around a curve on Lake Road in New Castle, veered into oncoming traffic and hurtled into the school bus.
The crash injured nine in total, NBC said.
But the three in the Honda, students at Fox Lane High School, were most grievously hurt.
The driver, Erick Fuentes, suffered a broken neck, fractured spine and broken leg, according to a GoFundMe account set up by his older sister, Stefanie.
The teen, who loves taking trips to Dunkin’ and works at a pizzeria, also had part of his skull removed because of a hematoma, she wrote.
“This is devastating, but all we have left is to have faith that he will make it out alive,” Stefanie wrote.
One of the passengers, Jonathan Martinez, 17, died at the scene but was brought back by paramedics, according to a GoFundMe organized by his older sister, Katherine Cruz.
Now, he’s hooked up to a ventilator, she wrote.
He also has a fractured femur, ruptured spleen, brain bleed and spinal injuries — and these have turned the vibrant jokester with the broad smile into “just a little boy fighting for his life now,” Cruz wrote.
The third of the critically injured, 16-year-old Axel Cantor, was in surgery for more than five hours, his GoFundMe said.
The high school junior who loves going to the gym, playing basketball and working on cars is also on a ventilator, organizer Kaitlynn Hurtado Rodriguez wrote.
He also has a brain hemorrhage, collapsed lungs, a liver hemorrhage and two broken legs.
“Axel is very family oriented and comes from a big loving family,” she wrote, adding that his mother takes care of him and his three siblings on her own.
The family, she said, is “facing a difficult moment right now.”
The fundraisers had collected a combined $86,000 by Thursday afternoon.
The five people on the bus escaped without major injuries, police said.
It’s not clear why the driver lost control, and cops wouldn’t say whether he had a learner’s permit, NBC said.
If he did, he still would have needed a passenger who was 21 or older to drive on local roads.
