• Were you or was someone you know injured in the Boston marathon bombings? Share your story

    Slideshow: Aftermath and reaction following Boston bombings

    David Friedman / NBC News

    Heightened security, empty streets, and memorials mark the the day after the Boston Marathon bombings.

    Launch slideshow

    The Boston marathon bombings that killed three and injured more than 170 people have shocked the nation and left Americans and the world grieving for the families of those who were killed and wounded.

    Were you, a family member, or a friend among those hurt in the attack? Share your first-person account with NBC News, if you are well enough to do so. Tell us your age, where you're from, you're phone number, and your story. Select accounts will be published on NBCNews.com; we won't publish your phone number.

    Email us here to tell your story.

  • At least 74 injured when commuter ferry crashes in Manhattan

    A commuter ferry slams into a New York City dock, injuring dozens on board. NBC's Chris Clackum reports.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News


    Updated at 3:35 p.m. ET -- A commuter ferry packed with more than 300 passengers crashed into a dock in Lower Manhattan early Wednesday, injuring 74, at least two critically. Nine people were also in serious condition, officials said.

    The force of the crash tossed some morning commuters in the air and sent others tumbling down stairs, witnesses said.

    “Everybody got jolted right out of their seats,” passenger Sean Boyle told NBC 4 New York, adding that it felt like the vessel went "full speed right into the pier.”

    For more, visit NBCNewYork.com

    After the accident, a large gash could be seen in the underside of the ferry, which was operated by Seastreak and originated from Highland, N.J., around 8 a.m.

    Aerial footage showed people strapped to stretchers, their heads and necks immobilized, with firefighters swarming the ferry and surrounding areas.

    “We were pulling in like we normally do every day, and the next thing I know, I was six feet in the air,” rider Ashley Furman told NBC 4 New York.  “I woke up from getting knocked out six feet in the air behind me. Thank god I’m OK and I’m not on a stretcher like everybody else.”

    One of those in critical condition was rushed to surgery with a head injury, a spokesperson with the New York Police Department said. A total of 326 people, including five crew members, had been aboard the vessel.

    It was not known what caused the crash, which occurred at Manhattan's Pier 11, near Wall Street. Weather conditions were normal Wednesday morning, and no mariner warnings had been posted before the 8:45 a.m. accident happened, NBC 4 New York reported.

    According to James Barker, Seastreak’s president, the ferry’s captain was at the controls when the vessel crashed. Barker said the captain had passed a breathalyzer test, and authorities were still waiting for results of a drug test – both of which are routine tests to be taken in accidents such as this one, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

    He added that the captain, a 10-year veteran of Seastreak, was cooperating with authorities.

    The National Transportation Safety Board launched a full investigation into the crash, and was working with the Coast Guard.

    Seastreak commuter service offers rides from the New York metropolitan area to and from New Jersey, according to its website.

    Wednesday's ferry accident was not the only one in recent New York history. In 2003, a Staten Island ferry got into an accident when its pilot, suffering from fatigue and on painkillers, passed out at the wheel; 11 people were killed. In May 2010, due to a mechanical malfunction, the same ferry smashed into a pier, injuring nearly 40 people. 

    PhotoBlog: Pictures from the ferry accident in Lower Manhattan

    NBC News

    A commuter ferry crashed into Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday, injuring dozens.

     

  • 33 high school students injured after bus veers off highway into woods

    View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

    By David Chang and Dan Stamm, NBCPhiladelphia.com

    Thirty-three high school students were injured after their school bus crashed into the woods along New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway on Monday afternoon.

    By Monday evening, everyone hurt in the crash was evaluated and released from local hospitals, with only four students suffering more than minor injuries.

    “The bus is about to tip over and I thought I was going to die,” said Infinity Watson, a student at Charter Tech who was on the bus at the time of the crash, which occurred just before 3:30 p.m.


    State police said that the driver lost control of the bus, veering off the parkway and into trees on the side of the road. The bus left deep skid marks in the grass on the side of the parkway.

    It appeared the crash was caused after an outer-rear wheel came off the bus while it was still in motion, investigators told NBCPhiladelphia.com. An inner-rear tire was also found to be attached to a bent axle. Investigators were still trying to determine the exact cause of the crash.

    Tom Dugan, the owner of the bus company Safety Bus, confirmed that the bus recently needed re-inspection after an earlier annual inspection revealed problems that needed correcting.

    Chopper 10 / NBC Philadephia

    A bus carrying 36 New Jersey high school students careened off the Garden State Parkway on Monday afternoon, crashing into the woods on the side of the road.

    Driver praised
    Parents and students on the bus praised the driver for swerving off the roadway instead of into traffic.

    “My daughter did say the bus driver did everything she could not to run into a car or hit the biggest tree possible,” said parent Michelle Griffin.

    More from NBCPhiladelphia.com

    All of the 36 students on board, as well as the driver, were taken to local hospital. Four students refused medical evaluation and left with their parents.

    Most of the injuries were described as bumps and bruises, with some students complaining of neck and back pain.

  • Police video shows George Zimmerman shortly after Trayvon Martin shooting

    Grainy video showing George Zimmerman on the night he killed Trayvon Martin, is being touted by those calling for his arrest. Even so, Zimmerman's defenders say the video supports their version of what happened. NBC's Ron Allen reports.

    By msnbc.com staff

    Updated at 7:09 a.m. ET: Surveillance video footage of George Zimmerman being led from a police car shortly after he fatally shot teenager Trayvon Martin does not appear to show any obvious signs of injuries or bloodstains, but his attorney says the video is too grainy to be revealing.


    The footage, obtained by ABC News on Wednesday, shows a handcuffed Zimmerman getting out of the police car unaided and walking into the police station where he was taken after the shooting in Sanford, Fla.

    It was taken about four hours after the deadly incident. 

    In the video, there are no readily visible signs of injuries to Zimmerman's head or blood on his clothes. However, he is wearing a red jacket, which could obscure blood stains. Also, at one point, an officer pauses to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, which he claims was injured by Martin.

    Appearing on NBC's TODAY on Thursday, Zimmerman's attorney Craig Sonner described the video as "very grainy." He also pointed out that Zimmerman had been "cleaned-up" and received first aid in the four hours between the incident and Zimmerman's videotaped arrival at the police station.

    Sonner has previously said that his client suffered a broken nose and a gash to his head during the altercation.

    George Zimmerman's attorney, Craig Sonner, tells TODAY's Matt Lauer that a video of George Zimmerman taken after the killing of Trayvon Martin is too grainy to show whether he had any blood or bruises on his face.

     

    Neighborhood watch volunteer Zimmerman, 28, who was released without charge, claims he shot dead the 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26 in self-defense after the teen attacked him.

    Eugene O'Donnell, of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the video shows "that it's beyond dispute that there are no serious injuries, physical injuries, he's not in a hospital."

    Does surveillance video of George Zimmerman in police custody on the night of Trayvon Martin's death contradict claims that he was beaten and bloodied during an altercation with the Florida teen? NBC's Ron Allen reports.

    "There's no bruising that's observable," O'Donnell told MSNBC TV's The Last Word. However, he added that "it's possible that there are injuries that are not seen in the video."

    How 'super Irish' man sparked massive Trayvon protest
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    Zimmerman's dad says Martin told his son, 'You're gonna die now'
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    Spike Lee to Sanford couple: 'I deeply apologize'

    Richard Kurtz, the funeral director who prepared Martin's body, was asked if there were any signs on his hands that he had punched someone.

    "The only thing that I was able to see was the gunshot wound," Kurtz told The Last Word. "I could not see evidence like he had been punching somebody as the news media say he was punching ... It just did not add up to me."

    The death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin by volunteer neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman has ignited a national conversation about prejudice, justice and the treatment of young African-American men. NBC News anchors, correspondents and contributors discuss the feelings that Trayvon's death sparked and relate their experiences covering the story.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

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  • 1 killed, 16 injured in 50-car pileup in Tenn.

    Mark Humphrey / AP

    A firefighter works at a crash site on Thursday in Hendersonville, Tenn. One person was dead and several were injured in a chain-reaction crash.

    By NBC News and news services

     A small car plowed into the back of a mail truck early Thursday, killing one person in one of several chain-reaction collisions of 50 cars on a fogbound highway near Nashville.

    The name of the deceased victim has been identified as 28-year-old Paul Warren of Hendersonville, Tenn.

    Police were treating the incident as four separate wrecks that all happened within the span of a few minutes in Hendersonville, Tenn.

    Hendersonville police say the series of wrecks began at 6:56 a.m.  Traffic stopped and another pile-up happened.  The third pile-up was the one that caused Warren's death.  The fourth crash happened shortly thereafter.

     The wrecks covered a two-mile stretch of Vietnam Vets Boulevard, beginning roughly at the bridge over Gallatin Road and ending close to the Saundersville Road exit.

    Read the original story on WSMV

    Thick fog and black ice are possible factors in the crashes.  A Hendersonville police lieutenant says there was black ice on the roadway, but investigators have not determined that to be the official cause of the pileup.

    16 others injured
    Eight people were taken to Hendersonville Medical Center with minor injuries and later released, according to hospital spokeswoman Shawna Zodi.

    Eight other people, two children and six adults, were transported to Sumner Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

    As the fog lifted, damaged vehicles could be seen along a couple of miles of Vietnam Veterans Parkway in Hendersonville.

    "I would compare it to a racetrack when there's been a pileup," said Ray McLaughlin, a district chief with the Hendersonville Fire Department. "Everyone started bouncing off one another."

    The chief said emergency workers counted 179 vehicles stopped at the crash scene, 50 of which had collided.

    Other than the one death, most of the injuries were neck and back complaints, McLaughlin said.

    One school bus was involved, but no children were hurt, said Sgt. Jim Vaughn with Hendersonville police.

    People involved in the wreck who were not injured were taken to the Sumner County Administration building in Gallatin.

    Traffic returned to normal at about 12:30 p.m.

    This article includes reporting from NBC station WSMV in Nashville and The Associated Press.

    More news and feature stories from msnbc.com: 

  • Oil spill illnesses, injuries double in past month

    Oil spill workers toiling along the Gulf Coast have suffered 1,753 illnesses and injuries, according to most recent figures from BP. That’s more than double the tally of a month ago.

    Records collected from April 22 through July 15 include 718 illnesses ranging from dehydration and heat exhaustion to seasickness, and 1035 injuries, mostly cuts, bruises and strains caused by accidents. On July 11, for instance, a worker slipped and caught his arm on a fish hook, which was embedded so deeply it reached the bone.

    Meanwhile, as of Wednesday, poison control centers had received 863 calls from people in 18 states reporting exposures to oil and dispersants, with symptoms that include headaches, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. People who called from states outside the Gulf Coast region may have been in the area to work or visit or may have family there, said a staffer with the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

    Another 536 people have called seeking information about the health effects of the spill, according to the poison centers.

    The largest number of reports has come from Louisiana, where health officials have logged 290 health complaints, including 216 from workers and 74 from the general population. Most frequent symptoms include headache, dizziness and nausea.