A 10th-grade girl and a motorist were killed Monday morning when a car hit a school bus full of high school students in central Florida, causing the bus to swerve and overturn.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference at the scene that video of the crash was available and was being studied by investigators. In the film, a white sedan is seen veering across the center line on Lucerne Park Road in Polk County and hitting the rear wheel of the bus, tearing a bus tire off.
That appeared to cause the bus to fishtail and strike a Jeep head-on.
The Jeep caught fire, killing one person inside, Judd said at the press conference, which was posted on YouTube by WFLA news. Several people were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries, The New York Times reported.
The names of the deceased and injured were not released by Tuesday.
The school bus was carrying 37 students to Winter Haven High School, southwest of Orlando. It was not clear why the white vehicle drifted over the center line and into the bus. The driver is cooperating with investigators, the Associated Press reported.
Judd called it the worst bus tragedy in the area in decades.
“If there’s a silver lining, it’s that there were not more fatalities than there were,” Judd said. “To have one fatality is one too many. To have one fatality of a beautiful high school girl is just heartbreaking.”
Photo: Crews attempt to right the overturned school bus on Monday. (Polk County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
Topics
Florida
Numbers
K-12
Education
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