JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two school bus crashes on Zoo Parkway in less than a week — both near railroad tracks — have Duval County families voicing concerns.
According to the school district, first and second-grade students from John E. Ford Elementary were returning to school Wednesday from a trip to the Jacksonville Zoo when their bus got into a “minor” crash.
Recommended Videos
According to the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department, one adult and eight students were taken to the hospital for evaluation of injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
The crash Wednesday came just under a week after a school bus headed to the zoo for a field trip was rear-ended by a semi on Zoo Parkway, injuring four kindergarten students.
Both crashes happened near railroad crossings.
The grandmother of one of the students involved in Wednesday’s crash shared a message to drivers after the repeated accidents on Zoo Parkway.
“They need to drive with caution,” she said. “It’s a lot of traffic on this road. This is a main road that a lot of semi trucks and a lot of cars come through here, and definitely when these buses are stopping at this railroad crossing, the drivers and everybody need to be very careful.”
As a reminder, all school buses are required by state and federal law to stop at all railroad crossings.
It doesn’t matter if there is a train or not, and it doesn’t matter if there are children on the bus or not. So drivers behind a school bus should be prepared to stop behind any buses at railroad crossings.
In the crash last Thursday, about 30 kindergarteners from San Pablo Elementary School were on a Duval County bus headed to the Jacksonville Zoo when a semi truck driver crashed into the back of the bus as it crossed the tracks, later telling JSO his “brakes were not working.”
No details were initially provided about the cause of Wednesday’s crash, but at the scene, News4JAX saw the bus stopped at the railroad tracks near Parker Avenue and Main Street with a tow truck behind it.
The grandmother who spoke to News4JAX said her grandson was shaken up afterward — and so was she.
“He hit his head as well. Some of his things flew out of the seat and flew down, but I didn’t see any visible marks or anything on him. His head hurts a little, but we’re going to take him to the emergency room right now,” she said. “I’m OK now that I saw him and was able to put my hands on him and just hold him, but just the shaking of him when he saw me and immediately just went into tears.”
News4JAX will continue to dig into the cause of Wednesday’s crash.
According to JSO records, the 37-year-old semi driver in the crash last week was cited for careless driving and fined $164. We are not naming the driver because there are no criminal charges.