Emergency personnel attend to the scene of a bus accident in this handout photo
In Photo: Emergency personnel attend to the scene of a bus accident in this handout photo provided by the Onondaga County Sheriff?s Office. The tour bus slammed into a car abandoned by an accused drunken driver on Interstate 81 near Syracuse on November 6, 2014, then smashed into a tractor trailer parked alongside the roadway, injuring 26 people, authorities said. Most seriously hurt was the driver of the Pine Hill Trailways tour bus, which was transporting 52 passengers from Toronto, Canada to New York City. REUTERS/Onondaga County Sherif

A tour bus between Canada and the United States crashed during the early hours on Thursday. The driver, along with 26 passengers, got injured in the accident.

The Adirondack Trailways-Pine Hill carried 52 passengers as it was moving from Toronto to New York. It crashed near Syracuse in New York at around 2:30 p.m. The tour bus collided with a car which had just smashed itself into a guardrail. CTV News reported that the bus was travelling on Interstate 81 in Nedrow. According to the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department, the car which crashed into a guardrail was parked perpendicular across the left lane. Even though its driver left the car to try flagging others for help, the tour bus could not stop. A tractor-trailer pulled over while heading south.

Kelvin Sharp Sr. of Buffalo, the driver of the tour bus, suffered critical injuries in the lower part of his body. He, however, managed to stay conscious during the extrication process for two hours. There was a point when amputation was considered to free the man. He was taken to Upstate Medical University Hospital. According to reports, he is now stable. The Central New York Region Red Cross spokesman Matt Michael said that one of the passengers in the bus was the cousin of the driver. However, it is unclear if the cousin is one of the injured passengers. Sharp's wife and son are coming from Buffalo and Rochester.

Most of the injured passengers suffered lower extremity, back, chest and facial injuries. All of the 26 passengers were apparently minor, The Star reported. Ten ambulances and emergency vehicles took them to hospitals. According to police, 36-year-old Robert Tarbell - the driver of the car, which had been parked perpendicular across the left lane - was charged for driving under the influence of alcohol. He was held on $15,000 bail in the Onondaga County Jail.

There were 25 other passengers in the bus that did not require any medical attention. They were taken to the Syracuse Regional Transportation Centre in another bus. There were 13 more passengers who later joined them after being treated for minor injuries.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au