TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Authorities were investigating Sunday what caused a driver of a decades-old school bus to run a flashing red light and collide with a tractor-trailer causing both to burst into flames killing five people and injuring 25 others.
Speed was not a factor, Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel said Saturday about the early morning crash.
“We don’t know what happened to the driver. He might have fallen asleep, he might not have seen the flashing red light,” Creel said. “From what I’ve seen, no there was not a speed factor.”
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.
Deputies responded to a gruesome and chaotic scene after the Blue Bird bus from Georgia carrying roughly 34 adults and children hit the tractor trailer, then spinning around to hit the semi again, authorities said. The vehicles went off the road and came to rest under a power line, both on fire.