Bus and Truck Involved in Fatal Florida Accident

Five people were killed and another 25 injured when a bus collided with a tractor trailer, causing both vehicles to become engulfed in flames.

The bus was coming from Georgia and was carrying over 30 passengers when it allegedly ran a flashing red light before colliding with the tractor trailer. After hitting the truck, the bus then spun around causing it to strike the truck a second time. The driver of the truck was one of the fatalities caused by the accident.

As first responders arrived, it was reported that both the front and rear of the large passenger bus were on fire. Responding deputies began helping passengers off the bus as it quickly burned, and fire fighters could not even begin immediately spraying down the flames with water because the vehicles came to rest against a telephone pole, which needed to first be shut down by the power company to avoid further complications.

While accidents of this scale are thankfully uncommon, they can still happen at any time. South Florida is especially vulnerable to accidents like these for several reasons. First, there is a substantial amount of tractor trailer traffic on highways throughout Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, due to the active shipping ports in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Tractor trailers are constantly flowing out of these ports, transporting goods all over the state, and will travel north on I-95 or the Florida Turnpike, or take I-595 West into Davie, Pembroke Pines, Weston, and beyond.

In addition, South Florida is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, and charter buses are a very common site on roads and highways from Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale down to Collins in Miami. When driving around or near large vehicles like these, take extra precaution and maintain safe distances, because vehicles of this size and their respective weight mean that they take longer to slow down and cannot maneuver as easily as other vehicles on the road.

For more information on this topic or any other, please feel free to contact the Schulman Law Group at (954) 349-3300 or at info@www.schulaw.com.