One Dead, One Hurt After Car Gets Pinned Under School Bus
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PEMBROKE PINES (CBSMiami) -- Firefighters needed the 'jaws of life' to pull out two people from a car involved in a horrific crash in Pembroke Pines.
One of them did not survive.
Traffic was shut down Thursday morning along the westbound lanes of Pembroke Road, from Douglas Road to Palm Avenue, after a red Toyota Camry slammed into the back of a yellow school bus so hard the majority of the car was wedged underneath the bus.
"I've seen many, many crashes," said Sgt. John Baker of Pembroke Pines Police. "It penetrated pretty deep and we're gonna do our best to figure out exactly what happened."
Police said the school bus was empty, aside from the driver, and was stopped at a light on Pembroke Road and Palm Avenue at about 6:30 a.m. when one eyewitness described hearing a loud crash.
The bus's back end was up in the air with the Camry crushed underneath it.
"It's pretty clear the car drove under the bus. The reason why that happened, we don't know for sure. It could be speed, it could be texting, it could be DUI. We don't know any of those things yet," admitted Sgt. Baker.
Considering the Camry's position and the impact, investigators suspect speed may have been at least one cause of the crash that killed the Camry's driver.
Firefighters from both the Pembroke Pines and Miramar departments had to cut off the car's roof to get the passenger out. Rescue rushed that person to the hospital with serious injuries.
As traffic homicide and crime scene investigators spent the morning looking into what happened, bystanders couldn't help but gawk at the horrific accident.
"As I was walking down the street I see the red car under the bus," high school student Jonathan Franklin told CBS4 Reporter Donna Rapado. "That was pretty crazy. I mean, that's not what I was expecting at all when I woke up this morning."
The school bus driver was okay, as was the bus.
Police have not yet identified the Camry's driver or passenger.