St. Augustine, FL : Four students injured after a school bus crash on Interstate 95 in St. Johns County on Wednesday morning, Nov 18, 2015
The driver of a St. Johns County school bus has been cited with careless driving after a Wednesday-morning wreck on southbound Interstate 95 near International Golf Parkway injured four students, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
There were 11 Pacetti Bay Middle School students on the bus in the single-vehicle crash that occurred just before 7 a.m. when Joseph David Sanks, 69, of St. Augustine drove off the interstate and struck some trees, according to the Highway Patrol. Three trees were removed from the crash site due to safety concerns.
Four students were taken to hospitals, including one with a serious leg injury, but Sanks was not hurt, according to the FHP.
The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately clear.
The school bus, No. 268, was a substitute bus, Christina Langston, a spokesman for the St. Johns County school district told the St. Augustine Record.
The regular bus, 204, was in for service, and bus 268 was assigned to the route, Langston said.
Pacetti Bay Middle School is about nine miles away from the scene of the wreck.
The FHP and St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office have responded to at least 530 wrecks this year on I-95 in St. Johns County, according to a report released to the Record by the FHP.
The I-95 “crash hotspots” in St. Johns County are County Road 210, International Golf Parkway, Florida 16 and Florida 207, according to the FHP.
The interchange at County Road 210 also is an area of concern for the Florida Department of Transportation, according to the 2009 Sketch Interstate Plan, which considers the frequency and rate of wrecks when “evaluating safety issues on a corridor.”
In St. Johns County, the Transportation Department focused specifically on an area located at mile-marker 328 on I-95, just south of the 210 interchange, which ranked No. 4 on a list of high crash rate locations along I-95.
The plan cites “loss of control” caused by “reverse curves” in the road as a reason for the continued frequency of wrecks in the area.”
Students who were not injured in the crash were released to guardians or school officials.
“Our typical process is to provide another bus for students to get to school, but once parents are notified, it’s ultimately their decision whether or not their child continues with the school day,” Langston said.
Trevor Dickson, a seventh-grader at Pacetti Bay, was one of the students transported to a hospital and he told Times-Union news partner First Coast News that he was lucky to walk away from the crash.
The student who was transported with the leg injury had it much worse, Dickson said.
“When the tree hit, the two seats were pushed back and they came in and his leg was stuck back there. His face just looked white, like drained, like he saw something that he didn’t want to see,” Dickson said.
The St. Augustine Record contributed this report.
Source :
St. Johns County school bus driver cited for careless driving after I-95 crash that injured 4 students