Arrest made in Florida bus crash that left at least 8 dead and dozens injured
At least eight people were killed in a bus crash on a Florida highway Tuesday morning, the Florida Highway Patrol said. According to the highway patrol, the bus collided with a pickup truck on State Road 40 in Marion County, which is located south of Gainesville and northwest of Orlando. The driver of the pickup truck was later arrested on drunken driving charges, authorities said.
Approximately 40 people, including the truck driver, were taken to area hospitals after the crash on the outskirts of Dunnellon, Florida, Highway Patrol Lt. Pat Riordan said during a news conference. Some of the injured were in very serious condition, Riordan said.
The crash involved a bus transporting about 53 farmworkers and a 2001 Ford Ranger truck, the highway patrol said in a statement to CBS News.
The retired school bus was traveling west on the highway and the pickup truck was going east when the truck moved toward the center line at around 6:35 a.m., Riordan said.
The bus and truck collided in "a sideswipe-type manner," Riordan said. The collision sent the bus off the road and it went through a fence and hit a tree before it overturned.
It wasn't immediately known why the truck moved toward the center line, Riordan said. However, Highway Patrol later reported that the truck driver, identified as Bryan Maclean Howard, was arrested at 1:47 p.m. local time on eight counts of driving under the influence - manslaughter.
CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG-TV reports that court records show Howard had several run-ins with the law, many of which involved driving-related offenses, from 2006-2021.
More than 30 ambulances responded to the crash scene, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods told reporters.
At HCA Florida Ocala Hospital, seven patients were in critical condition and two were in stable condition, a spokesperson told CBS News. Another patient was in stable condition at HCA Florida West Marion Hospital.
The bus was taking the workers to a farm in the area, Riordan said. Woods said the farmworkers are migrants with documentation.
"Everything that I have been told at this point, they all have what they need to be here," Woods said. "There's no reason for me to be involved with these individuals. They're hardworking individuals, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them being here."
Mexico's Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Bárcena said on social media that some Mexicans were involved in the crash. Woods said a language barrier was one of the challenges in conducting the investigation but authorities have bilingual personnel to translate.
Buses carrying migrant workers to farms are a common sight this time of year in the county, Woods said.
"We're a very big agricultural county," the sheriff said.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office said on social media the part of the highway where the crash occurred would be shut down for most of the day.
The highway patrol is investigating the crash. Riordan said investigators will need at least six months to conduct the investigation.
Riordan and Woods briefed reporters under a tent in the rain. The sheriff said the weather was being considered as part of the investigation.
"We have to look into it," Woods said. "We have to know if the roads were wet … Was there something else that caused the crash? We don't know right now."