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Man Hospitalized After Crash Involving County Bus

Tribune photo by ANDY JONES

The driver of this pickup was sent to the hospital after his vehicle was involved in a multiple-vehicle crash about noon today.

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 8, 2008

HUDSON - A couple of passengers had just stepped off a county bus at the stop north of Denton Avenue when a flat-bed truck slammed into the back of the bus about noon today.

The bus rocked, passengers said, but none of the seven riders was injured. But soon they realized they were just one part of the crash.

While the bus was stopped in front of From Dusk Til Dawn, 16034 U.S. 19, the driver of the Isuzu flat-bed truck didn't immediately realize the bus had stopped, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Johnson said.

"The flat-bed truck tried to avoid the bus and the other truck hit him."

The other truck was a quad cab Ford F-350 towing a large speed boat. The Ford's driver struck the Isuzu, sending it spiraling and smashing the driver's side of the Ford's front end, Johnson said.

Once riders on the bus realized what happened, passenger Tina Rand, 38, of Hudson, stepped outside and saw the damage to the pickup, which was stuck in a ditch, and she ran over to it. She could see that the driver was unconscious and smoke was filling the truck.

"He was totally slumped over," Rand said. "I yelled at him to wake up."

He didn't move. All of the air bags appeared to have been deployed. The pickup's horn was sounding.

"The whole truck was just full of smoke," Rand said.

A second bus rider, Cheryl Beauchamp, 31, also of Hudson, was concerned about the smoke.

"I thought it was going to blow up," she said. "So if he was unconscious, I wanted to make sure he got out."

That's when she noticed a window was down in the back of the truck, and she climbed in, cutting her left leg slightly. She removed the seat belt from the man and unlocked the doors.

Another man, whose name wasn't known, also tried to assist.

As it turned out, the truck wasn't on fire.

By this time, paramedics arrived. The pickup's driver, whose name wasn't released, was flown by medical helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. His condition wasn't known this afternoon.

Bus driver Gerry Grasso peeked into his side mirror as two passengers were getting off of the bus - that's when he noticed the flat-bed quickly approaching and he knew trouble was coming. Then he saw the pickup.

"The guy with the boat had no chance of slowing down; he was moving too fast," Grasso said.

Then he heard a crash, and then another, and the bus shook.

None of the seven passengers was hurt, he said. But the bus's engine, which sits in the rear, needs repairs.

Grasso said he's been involved in 11 crashes as a Pasco bus driver. Most have been drivers slamming into the rear of the bus.

"We can't imagine how they don't see these lights flashing," he said of the lights that go on when they stop the bus to let passengers on or off. "We're just lucky no one on the bus was hurt."

Troopers are still investigating the crash.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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