Two die after school bus overturns in central Florida crash

A 10th-grade girl and another person were killed Monday morning when a crash involving three vehicles sent a school bus onto its roof in Winter Haven, Florida, authorities said. Dozens of students were aboard the bus on its way to Winter Haven High School.

The crash happened at about 6:13 a.m., according to authorities cited by The Guardian. The bus was traveling in its lane when a white Chevy Malibu coming from the opposite direction crossed the center line for reasons that were not known and struck the bus near its rear wheels, officials said.

The impact tore off a tire and caused the bus to lose traction. It then crossed the center line and hit an oncoming silver Jeep head-on. CBS News reported that the Jeep caught fire and that one of its occupants died. The bus came to rest upside down in a ditch beside the road.

“It was a horrible crash,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. “It was a terrible, tragic morning. We had a beautiful 10th grade girl lose her life.”

The bus carried 39 people: 37 high school students, its driver and the driver’s daughter. A Polk County Public Schools spokesperson said the girl who died attended Winter Haven High School, The Guardian reported.

About 26 students on the bus were taken to a hospital, the Polk County sheriff’s office said in a statement cited by The Guardian. Judd said five to seven people were transported with potentially traumatic injuries, according to CBS News. One person remained in critical condition early Monday, he said.

First responders spent the first several hours after the crash getting people to hospitals, identifying them and reuniting students with their parents, Judd said. He called it “the most horrific bus tragedy we’ve had in decades, as far back as I can remember.”

Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Frederick Heid said students practice drills for leaving a bus after an accident. “This event could have been far worse. You can see the condition of the bus, you can see its current positioning,” he said at a news conference held near the wreck.

Justin Sharpless, chairman of the Polk County school board, asked the community to support the girl’s family, the school and its staff. “There are really no words that can take away the pain of losing a young person,” he said.

Another Polk County school bus was involved in a crash in Lakeland on Sept. 3, CBS News reported. No students were aboard that bus, and one person suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

The Guardian reported that National Safety Council data recorded 110 deaths related to school bus crashes in 2024, down 14% from 128 in 2023. Over a nine-year period beginning in 2015, bus passengers accounted for 6% of deaths in such crashes, according to the council.