Two Dead After Car Slams Into Bus Full Of Students
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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - Two men are dead after their car slammed into a charter bus packed with students and burst into flames.
The accident happened just before midnight across from Dillard High School at NW 27th Avenue and 11th Street.
The bus, with 35 students onboard, was returning from a trip to Tallahassee. The bus had just dropped some students off at the school and was leaving the parking lot when it was hit. One student and an adult on the bus suffered minor injuries.
"The bus was making a left, this guy coming like 60 (mph), hit the bus on the right side, that car exploded into fire, the guy died inside the car, he burned up. The bus was starting to get on fire and the bus man got them off the bus," said Nelly Kelly, a parent who saw the crash.
Cellphone video of the moments right after the crash show the panic is created.
"It's gonna blow, make sure there's nobody on the bus," screamed Kendra Young. "It's going to blow up , I'm telling you a Ddodge crashed into a charter bus carrying 35 students. Make sure there's nobody on the bus."
Young said before firefighters and rescue crews arrived, parents rushed in to try and help.
"It was a bystander, a parent, that was able to get a hammer, bust the window out and him and another young lady was able to pull the body of the car," said Young.
Cellphone video shows adults scrambling to get help get the students off the bus.
"Look how fast it's burning, it's going to explode," you can hear a woman say.
Some of the students who made it off the bus were clearly traumatized.
"You okay, what happened, breathe, breathe, it's okay," said the woman on the video.
The man pulled from the car was taken to a hospital where he died. The other man died on the scene. Both men were fathers, one had a six year old daughter.
Family members and friends of the two men said they have no idea what caused the crash.
They said the driver, 41-year old Sedric Camnper, and his passenger, 37-year old Otis Harvey III, were coming home from watching a basketball game at a friend's house and mourning the loss of a friend.
"We just lost a close friend and we were just getting our clothes ready for his funeral tomorrow. When the game was over, he get ready to leave, he gave everybody a hug telling them he's going. All I know after that is that I got a phone call saying there was a wreck," said Jay Jay, who hosted the game watching party.
"How do you explain this to a six year old that her father is no longer here. And also the driver, you know, had lots of kids. I can't speak on how many, but he had kids as well that are in this area. So every day that we drive over here to see family we are going to remember this," said Brandon Wright, a cousin of Harvey.
Police have not said if alcohol was involved, but friends who were with the men watching the game said the driver had not been drinking.
