WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A Winter Haven High School student and a Jeep driver were killed Monday morning in a crash that sent a school bus into a ditch and dozens of people to hospitals, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The crash happened around 6:13 a.m. on Lucerne Park Road. Investigators said a westbound white Chevrolet Malibu crossed into the eastbound lane and struck the school bus.
The impact pushed the bus into the westbound lane, where it collided head-on with a silver Jeep before overturning into a ditch. The Jeep caught fire, and its driver died at the scene.
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Investigators have not determined why the Malibu crossed into the bus’s lane.
A female 10th-grade student aboard the bus also died at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
Who was aboard the bus
Bus No. 1819 carried 39 people: 37 Winter Haven High School students, a Polk County Public Schools bus driver and the driver’s 9-year-old daughter.
The sheriff’s office provided this breakdown of hospital transports for the 36 surviving students:
- 22 traveled on another school bus with a Polk County Fire Rescue paramedic attending to them
- Seven were taken by ambulance
- Three were airlifted
- Four were taken by family members
The bus driver and her daughter were also taken to a hospital by ambulance.
Among people in the other vehicles involved, one adult was taken by ambulance and two others went to hospitals on their own.
Most injured patients treated and released
Patients were taken to AdventHealth Heart of Florida, Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, Winter Haven Hospital and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.
Most of those injured were treated and released Monday, according to the sheriff’s office.
Winter Haven firefighters and police, Haines City police, Polk County Fire Rescue and Polk County Public Schools assisted deputies at the scene.
Another update planned Tuesday
The sheriff’s office said it would not release video from the bus or 911 calls Monday.
Questions about whether the bus had seat belts, along with questions about parents and reunification, were directed to Polk County Public Schools.
The sheriff’s office plans to provide another update at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, at its operations center in Winter Haven.
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