5 Dead, 25 Injured in Florida Crash Between Bus and Truck
by The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Five people were killed and 25 were injured when a bus carrying farmworkers collided with a tractor trailer causing both vehicles to burst into flames Saturday on a highway in the Panhandle, sheriff's officials said.
The Blue Bird bus from Georgia was carrying roughly 34 adults and children when it ran a flashing red light before hitting the tractor trailer, then spun around and hit the semi again. One of the bus passengers killed was a small child. The driver of the semi-truck, Gordon Sheets, 55 of Copiague, New York, also died, said Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel.
Deputies responded to a gruesome and chaotic scene as the front and the back of the bus was on fire when they arrived.
"Our deputies are heroes ... our deputies got on the bus and started pulling people off, people that were not able to get off by themselves. They pulled out two deceased victims," said Creel.
He said deputies continued to rescue victims until the bus was fully engulfed in flames and they were forced to stop.
Wakulla County first responders work on the scene of an accident on Saturday, July 2, 2016 in Wakulla, Fla. The Florida Highway Patrol says a bus and tractor trailer collided on a highway in the Panhandle. Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe says the bus was carrying between 30 and 35 passengers and was from Georgia. Joe Rondone /Tallahassee Democrat / AP
"If these deputies had not done that, we would have had a lot more fatalities," the sheriff said in a phone interview.
Both vehicles were resting against a power pole with live wires so fire rescue officials had to wait for the power company to shut off the power before it was safe to spray the vehicles with water. Both vehicles eventually burned out, he said.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported the intersection was strewn with bloody medical gear, clothing, pillows and coolers packed with food littered the road. The accident happened on US-98, a highway that follows the Florida coast around the Gulf of Mexico.
No one on the bus spoke English and authorities brought in interpreters, Creel said.
Florida Highway Patrol officials were also investigating the wreck and were in the processing of notifying victims' family members.
The driver of the bus, 56-year-old Elie Dupiche of Belle Glade, was hospitalized in critical condition. A passenger in the semi-truck, 21-year-old Rafael Nieves of Sound Beach, New York, was not injured, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
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UPDATED: 5 dead, 25 hospitalized in Wakulla County bus crash
LIVE REPORTS FROM FATAL BUS CRASH SCENEWoodville Highway Accident |
Wakulla Sheriff Charlie Creel on Highway 98 fatal wreck Karl Etters/Democrat
5 dead in bus crash on Highway 98 Karl Etters, Democrat staff writer 9:17 p.m. EDT July 2, 2016
A bus traveling south on Woodville Highway was hit by a semi-truck traveling west on Coastal Highway in Wakulla Saturday morning, leaving 5 people dead and 25 more hospitalized. (Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)Buy Photo
Charred rubble, personal effects and bloody medical gear littered the side of Coastal Highway 98 in Wakulla after five people, including one child, died in an early-morning crash Saturday.
The fire-gutted frame was all that remained of a refurbished school bus, carrying as many as 35 Haitian migrant workers and their families. The semi-truck that the bus hit was equally destroyed.
The truck disintegrated on impact after the bus blew through the blinking red light that leads south to the city of St. Marks.
Its engine block and shredded front tires still sat on the side of the road in a puddle of muddy water as emergency officials tried to piece together what happened. Small trinkets, coolers once packed with food and drinks, pillows and a watermelon lay in the grass near the burning bus. On a sign post nearby was a smudged, bloody palm print.
Florida Highway Patrol investigators say the southbound bus did not stop for the light, hit the truck that was heading west, and then slammed into a power pole around 5 a.m. Skid marks just feet from the intersection indicate the semi-truck may have only braked seconds before impact.
Live electrical wires were knocked to the ground as fire engulfed both vehicles. That made it hard for emergency responders to get to the passengers or start spraying water to extinguish the flames.
Arriving Wakulla County Sheriff’s deputies pulled two deceased people from the bus as the wires arced and continued to pull injured passengers from the burning vehicle.
FHP identified 56-year-old Elie Dupiche of Belle Glade as the driver of the 1979 Blue Bird bus. Gordon A. Sheets, a 55-year-old from Copiague, New York, was the driver of the 2005 Freightliner semi truck. Sheets had one passenger, 21-year-old Rafael Nieves of Sound Beach, New York.
Dupiche is currently in critical condition at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Sheets died as a result of his injuries. Nieves was left uninjured.
Wakulla Sheriff Charlie Creel said four of the dead died on the scene and the other died at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
TMH spokesman Warren Jones said 18 people were taken to the hospital. Twelve were taken to the Bixler Emergency and Trauma Center on the hospital's main grounds at Magnolia Drive and Miccosukee Road. He said the patients taken there are the most seriously injured. Four other patients were taken to TMH's Emergency Center Northeast.
By Saturday evening, 12 patients remained — three in critical condition, three in serious condition and six in fair condition — and were being held overnight.
Jones said the hospital is working with the American Red Cross to connect patients with their families. A Red Cross welcome center for the injured was set up in Tallahassee.
The Haitian migrant farm workers from Bainbridge, Georgia, were headed south to Belle Glade for a few weeks of work before returning north.
Wakulla crash kills 5 injures dozens more. One relative is unsure if his aunt died in the crash or not
The bus left around 4 a.m., said Saintervil Amilcar, who rushed to the small coastal community from Bainbridge when he heard of the crash.
His aunt was on the bus, but Saturday morning he was unsure whether she had died or not.
“Some people said my auntie died. I don’t know,” he said as smoke continued to pour from the repainted school bus and firefighters battled the remaining small blazes.
Amilcar is a farm worker. He said another bus was supposed to accompany the one involved in the crash. He said they may have been lost but earlier had a bad feeling about the route they were taking.
“I told them don’t go through Tallahassee,” Amilcar said as he paced near the wreckage. “If you go there you’re going to have problems. But they didn’t listen and I don’t know if they’re lost but look at what happened. God talked to me.”
Creel, who worked as an FHP trooper for years, said the crash was one of the worst he’d seen in his career and certainly the worst in Wakulla County.
He praised the quick action of first responders – a dozen different agencies and organizations assisted – who saved lives with their expeditious work.
“If not for them and the troopers and firefighters, we would have more fatalities than we had,” Creel said not far from a WCSO mobile command post. “Wakulla County Sheriff’s deputies are heroes. I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude in Wakulla County.”
Wakulla operates four ambulances, each able to carry one patient on a stretcher. Leon County EMS helped rush passengers to the Tallahassee hospitals, and one person was airlifted from the scene.
There are rumble strips leading up to the flashing light, which has a red signal for motorists heading north and south and a yellow signal for those traveling east and west.
The manager of the Exxon gas station at the intersection said she has seen several car wrecks there and just as many people run the red light in her 10 years there. She, too, said this was the worst wreck at the intersection she had seen.
A morning attendant ran out to help but stopped because of the fire and live wires. The station closed for the day.
The crash cut off the coastal town of St. Marks during the busy Fourth of July weekend. Traffic heading east and west on Highway 98 was diverted around the Woodville Highway intersection. There was no open route to the coast to the south.
FHP Capt. Jeffrey Bissainthe said several people fled the scene of the crash and have not been located.
Traffic homicide investigators remained on the scene throughout the day taking measurements and reviewing video footage from a bank and Exxon gas station at the intersection.
Although he said the bus running the light caused the collision, it was still unclear what led to the bus missing the blinking red signal.
“We’re not sure what caused this traffic crash,” Bissainthe said. “But you need to keep your hands on the wheel, eyes on the road and your mind on driving, so don’t drive distracted and pay attention, especially during this holiday weekend.
“Whenever you have a fatality, especially involving a child, it’s bad. The amount of people that’s involved in this crash, it’s very bad.”