Starke teens injured in crash with school bus
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
According to releases from Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) and Florida Highway Patrol, an 18-year-old Starke man was critically injured and a 19-year-old Starke woman was seriously injured when a school bus pulled out in front of them this morning on US 301 in the Lochloosa area.
Around 7:00 a.m. this morning, the school bus, driven by a 71-year-old Hawthorne man, entered the intersection of SE 162nd Ave and US 301. A sedan that was traveling south on US 301 collided with the school bus, and ACFR used the “Jaws of Life” to extricate the 2 occupants of the sedan; both were transported to UF Health as trauma alerts.
The 14 students and the driver of the bus were uninjured, and the bus had minor damage. The incident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
This certainly looks like this school bus driver was at fault. You can’t just pull out into a high speed highway when you are driving a lumbering vehicle like a school bus, and expect vehicles going 55-60 MPH to be able to swerve around you.I know they are short staffed, but the bus drivers obviously need better training. That should be a higher priority for our school superintendent than suing the governor and keeping kids out of school who don’t want to wear a useless “face covering.” I sure hope these two young people survive and recover from this horrific crash….