Ugh. Bugs on a bus send passengers running for cover

NEW YORK -- You’ve heard of snakes on a plane, but roaches on a bus?

Passengers on a Greyhound bus headed to New York City on Friday may have wished for deadly vipers to slither up the aisles, as they did in the 2006 movie “Snakes on a Plane,” instead of the bugs that began crawling over them shortly after they had left Atlantic City, N.J.

The creepy stowaways began making their appearance about 15 minutes into the trip, forcing the driver to pull over as shrieking passengers tried to brush the bugs away. Another bug-free bus was dispatched to pick up the passengers and take them on to New York City.

“When I say infested, I mean infested,” Dejuana Alexander told WABC news as the passengers disembarked at the end of the trip. Alexander said she was seated in the back of the bus when she noticed passengers seated up front leaping from their seats.

“After awhile, the panic got toward the back, because we started looking around and saw roaches crawling out of everywhere,” she said. “People were in the aisles, literally brushing roaches off of them.”

“Roaches started crawling up on our clothes … everywhere,” said Gregory Simpson.

“We thought it was one. It turned out to be a whole house full of roaches,” said another passenger. “The man had roaches on his coat. The lady had roaches on her hat.”

The cause of the infestation was not clear. Greyhound said the bus had been carrying 48 people. The number of bugs on board was impossible to determine. Each passenger received a full refund for the trip and an apology from Greyhound, which said it was investigating the situation.

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tina.susman@latimes.com