WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A school bus flipped over onto its roof during a multi-vehicle crash in central Florida on Monday morning, killing two people — including a 10th grade girl — and injuring several others, authorities said.
Some 39 people were on the school bus that was headed to Winter Haven High School in Winter Haven when an oncoming car crossed the center line and caused the crash, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference.
“It was a horrible crash,” Judd said. “It was a terrible, tragic morning. We had a beautiful 10th grade girl lose her life.”
The bus had been traveling along a Winter Haven road shortly after 6 a.m. when an oncoming car crossed the center line and crashed into the side of the bus near the rear wheels, Judd said. The impact ripped the tire off the bus and caused it to crash head on into an oncoming Jeep, which caught on fire.
One person in the Jeep died. Judd said five to seven people were transported to the hospital with potentially traumatic injuries and that one person remained in critical condition early Monday.
The bus was transporting 39 people in all — 37 high school students, the bus driver, and the bus driver’s daughter. Judd said first responders spent the first several hours getting people to the hospital, identifying them and reuniting students with their parents.
“I think this is the most horrific bus tragedy we’ve had in decades, as far back as I can remember,” Judd said.
