A student and one other person were killed in a collision in central Florida on Monday morning, after a school bus overturned, authorities said. The accident occurred around 6.13 local time in the town of Winter Haven and involved three vehicles, authorities said.
There were 39 people on the bus: 37 students, the bus driver and the driver’s daughter, officials said. Some 26 students on the bus were taken to hospital, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
The deceased student was described as a girl in the tenth grade. A spokesperson for the Polk County school district said the deceased student was attending Winter Haven High School (WHHS). “This is devastating news for WHHS and our community,” the district said in a statement, as reported by local media outlet WESH. “We are praying for the victims and their families.”
The other person who died was “a passenger in one of the [two] other vehicles” involved in the crash, officials said. At a press conference, officials said the bus was travelling in its lane when a white Chevy Malibu travelling in the opposite direction “for unknown reasons” crossed the centre line and struck the school bus.
The car struck the rear tandem wheels of the bus, causing it to lose traction, and apparently tearing off one of the bus’s tyres. The bus then crossed the centre line into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a silver Jeep, officials said. “It was a horrific accident,” said Grady Judd, the Polk County Sheriff. “It was a terrible, tragic morning. We lost a beautiful tenth-grade girl.”
The latest data from the National Council showed that there were 110 fatalities in 2024 linked to school bus crashes, which was 14 per cent fewer than the 128 fatalities in 2023. According to the data, 71 per cent of fatalities in crashes involving school buses involved passengers in other vehicles, and 15 per cent of those fatalities involved pedestrians.
Passengers accounted for 6 per cent of fatalities reported in school bus crashes, which suggests that such deaths were relatively rare, according to the data. Drivers and cyclists accounted for 4 per cent and 3 per cent of fatalities reported in school bus crashes, respectively, according to the council, which states that riding in a school bus is statistically safer for children than driving a car or walking to school.
