‘It honestly broke my heart’: Witness helps injured kids after deadly Florida bus crash
By Gail Paschall-Brown, Pattrik Perez, Madilyn Destefano
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WINTER HAVEN, Florida (WESH) — A school bus crash early Monday morning on Lucerne Park Road in Winter Haven claimed the lives of a 10th-grade student and another driver, with dozens injured and receiving treatment at local hospitals.
Most were treated at Winter Haven Hospital, where 19 pediatric and three adult patients received care. All but one pediatric patient have been released. Ten pediatric patients treated at AdventHealth Heart of Florida have been discharged to their parents, while Lakeland Regional Health treated 10 others, releasing seven. Two remain under observation, and one is in critical condition.
Witness rushes to help Witness Aniyah Urbaez captured video of the fiery scene after traffic came to a stop.
“I take a video to show it and send it to work to let them know I was going to be late, and as I’m taking the video is when I see the kids frantically off to the side, and I hear people calling for help,” Urbaez said.
She described the distressing scene, saying, “It honestly just broke my heart to see how frantic they were and just how much they wanted to get in contact with their family.”
Urbaez added, “There were kids who were missing shoes, cuts all around, blood all around. One kid was bleeding from his head and he had blood dripping down.”
Before paramedics arrived, Urbaez rendered aid.
“I tried to gather as much as I could and bring them to my car, sat some of them down on the road, sat some of them down in the car for the AC. Luckily, I had a first aid kit in the car. So I was able to help clean them up and make sure they got in contact with their parents,” she said.
The crash occurred just before 6:15 a.m. as the school bus, traveling eastbound, collided with a westbound white Chevy Malibu that had crossed into the bus’s lane.
“It was a terrible, tragic morning. We had a beautiful 10th-grade girl lose her life. She was on the bus,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
The sheriff confirmed that 39 people were on the bus, including 37 high school students, the bus driver, and the driver’s 9-year-old daughter. The impact sent the bus westbound, where it struck a silver Jeep head-on. The Jeep caught fire, killing its driver.
Urbaez said she continued to assist injured students, including one who couldn’t walk due to leg pain.
“I lifted her up and carried her back to the car,” she said.
Emergency responders transported 22 students from the bus to the hospital via another school bus with a paramedic onboard. Seven students, the bus driver, and her daughter were taken by ambulance, while three students were airlifted. Four others were taken to the hospital by family members.
“I’m just glad that I was able to be put in that situation and God used me to help them, and again my prayers go out to them and their families,” Urbaez said.
Can school bus drivers prepare for something like this? Shelly Mathis, transportation chief for Sumter County School District, whose agency was not involved in the crash, told WESH 2 that school bus drivers undergo extensive training and follow many safety protocols. But they can’t control the actions of other drivers on the road.
“Unfortunately, nothing can prepare you for this magnitude of an accident,” she said. “This one is different. There’s really nothing you can do to prepare yourself for something like this, other than the typical things.”
The Polk County School District confirmed the bus was equipped with seat belts and that drivers encourage students to wear them. However, it remains unclear how many students were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.
“You repeat it, and you repeat it, and you repeat it. You can’t force them to do it. Obviously, there are some disciplinary actions you can take, but once those have been exhausted, you just preach it and live it,” Mathis said.
She stressed the emotional burden the crash will place on the school bus driver, who feels responsible for every child aboard.
“Our prayers are definitely with the families and with the first responders and everyone involved in this accident,” Mathis said.
Florida seat belt laws The state of Florida has laws that require all school districts to have seat belts on school buses.
For the past 25 years, every new bus purchased to transport students from pre-K through high school has been required to have a seat belt for each student.
Everyone riding on the bus has to buckle up and fasten their seat belt while the bus is moving, and school bus drivers enforce this.
The state, county, and school district or school bus company cannot be held liable if someone gets hurt because they or another passenger weren’t wearing a seat belt.
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