FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – 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.