Bicyclist injured after collision with SEPTA bus in Germantown

A man riding a bicycle was injured after colliding with a SEPTA bus in Germantown this morning.

The victim, whose identity was not immediately available, was struck by the Route 23 bus near the intersection of Washington Lane and Germantown Ave. at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to witnesses.

Traffic was temporarily diverted as the victim lay face down in the street. However, within 15 minutes, the man was able to sit up on his own.

Wearing a neck brace, he was transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center.

“The bus driver was being comforted by a colleague. She yelled, ‘I have never hit anybody before,'” recounted Bas Slabbers, a NewsWorks freelance photographer who was on the 23 bus at the time of the collision.

Slabbers said both bicycle and bus were heading southbound on Germantown Ave. at the time. He had seen the bicyclist, a middle-aged man, a few blocks away beforehand.

The bus, which was going “a normal speed through the green light,” remained at the scene, according to Slabbers.

Andrew Busch, a SEPTA spokesman, said the driver called in to report “contact with a bicyclist” around 7:41 a.m. The bicyclist’s injuries were described as facial lacerations and nobody aboard the bus was hurt, he said.

Officers with the police Accident Investigations Unit are working to figure out specifics about what happened.