7 Dead, 15 Hurt In Florida School Bus Crash

[Skywatch_NC]

7 Dead, 15 Hurt In Florida School Bus Crash

POSTED: 4:50 pm EST January 25, 2006
UPDATED: 5:33 pm EST January 25, 2006

LAKE BUTLER, Fla. -- Seven people were reported killed Wednesday afternoon when a Union County, Fla., school bus, a tractor-trailer and a van crashed.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the crash occurred just after 3:30 p.m. on state Road 121, four miles south of Lake Butler.

None of the fatalities were students on the bus, but FHP Lt. Bill Leeper said that some of the victims in the van were children.

The school bus transporting nine students had stopped to let kids off, reported Jacksonville TV station WJXT. A van behind the bus that was also stopped was rear-ended by the tractor-trailer. The van and the truck bust into flames.

In addition to the dead, between 15 and 20 people were hurt. At least three are reported to have life-threatening injuries. Those were flown by air ambulance to Shands-Gainesville Medical Center.

Rescue personnel from Union and Alachua counties responded, and those from Columbia County were on standby.

The Union County School Board told WJXT that they could not immediately say which students were on the bus, as each of their buses carry students from more than one school.

There are three schools in the county: one elementary, one middle and one high school.

State Road 121 is a rural, two-lane road, and weather was not a factor in the crash, WJXT reported.

http://www.wral.com/news/6439643/detail.html

Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.

[O Town]

Very sad. And a little scary as I was on a school bus today going on a field trip with one of my girls.

[Rainband]

Very Very sad.

[wxmann_91]

Very sad indeed

[arkess7]

awful

[Stephanie]

That is so sad!!

[Brent]

All the victims were children including the driver who was underage.

[feederband]

on their way to church........

[HurricaneGirl]

A terrible and tragic accident. . this was all over our local news yesterday..

[alicia-w]

and apparently the grandfather passed away after hearing of the crash.

so this poor woman lost all of her children and her father. wow. i'm speechless.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/26/bus.crash/index.html

[TexasStooge]

So sad.

WHAT WAS THAT TRACTOR TRAILER DRIVER THINKING?!?!?!?!?!?!

[alicia-w]

the local folks there are saying that semis have ALWAYS driven too fast on that road.

[Skywatch_NC]

So sad.

WHAT WAS THAT TRACTOR TRAILER DRIVER THINKING?!?!?!?!?!?!

Article says this particular truck driver had been cited for unsafe driving five years ago, too!!

[GrimReaper]

Grim wants to weigh in on this one:


1. What the heck was the mother thinking when she allowed an underage,
unlicensed driver to pile in 7 passengers in a 6 passenger vehicle.
One passenger should have been in a car seat. Where is HER
responsibility in this tradgedy!!!

2. The driver of the truck was NOT speeding or was he "over-tired",
the company he was driving for, CRETE Carriers has the Qual-Com
satellite system on EVERY truck... which means the driver was NOT
speeding. The trucks can NOT go over 62mph. The driver can NOT
drive more than the legal limit, Crete can shut his truck off when he
approaches his limit.

3. Pray for the driver too....because it looks like he IS at fault, for not
paying attention. And even after all the legal stuff is over... he still
has to look at himself in the mirror and realize he killed 7 people!

-Grim

[alicia-w]

he was obviously going to fast if he couldnt stop behind those vehicles.

and now from MSNBC:
Evidence suggests that a tractor-trailer never braked before it rear-ended a car full of siblings and shoved it into a stopped school bus on a rural highway, killing all seven children in the car, state troopers said.

Authorities were looking into whether the truck had a mechanical failure or whether its driver was tired or talking on a cell phone, among other possibilities, Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Mike Burroughs said. Also, a sample of 31-year-old Alvin Wilkerson’s blood will be tested for alcohol, Burroughs said.

“We want to know why he didn’t see a big, large school bus,” Burroughs said.

[Scorpion]

I feel bad for the driver. It probably wasn't his fault.

[gtalum]

I feel bad for the driver. It probably wasn't his fault.

When you rear-end someone, you're almost always at fault.

[Skywatch_NC]

I feel bad for the driver. It probably wasn't his fault.

Most likely it was though...and also cited for a driving violation 5 years ago. Both the school bus driver and teenage girl driver were obeying traffic laws...although the young lady should have had an adult present since she only had her "temps"...as we called that back in the days when we took driver's ed.

[Brent]

The driver is defintely at fault... though the girl shouldn't have been driving without an adult in the car, but that did not cause the wreck.

[SamSagnella]

unless it turns out the brakes failed or something mechanical like that, the tractor trailer driver is likely going to jail for a long time for this. and also, the fact that the van driver was only 15 years old had absolutely nothing to do with this. as the aunt of the driver put it, "the same thing would have happened had there been an adult in the car with her. we'd just have one more death in the family."