A 59-year-old man was struck by a school bus on Manatee Avenue near 26th Street East in Bradenton early this morning, the Bradenton Police Department reports. As stated by FOX 13 News, the incident occurred around 6:35 a.m., and the pedestrian was transported to the hospital as a trauma alert. The police noted the man was not utilizing a crosswalk at the time he was hit.

Following the collision, an area of Manatee Avenue was temporarily shut down, creating a brief disruption during the morning commute. According to 10 Tampa Bay, the road has since to quickly reopen, and the children on board the school bus were taken to their school without reporting injuries. The driver's condition was initially described as "alert and awake" when officers arrived on scene, but no further updates on his current state have been released.

Bradenton Police assured there were no students injured during the incident involving the charter school bus. The circumstances leading up to the incident will continue to be investigated, as is the procedure for such traffic events. More information is forthcoming as officers work meticulously to determine the breadth of the situation that morning.

The investigation is ongoing and law enforcement officials are piecing together the events that unfolded. The details around why the pedestrian was in harm's way at that juncture, and the dynamics that led the school bus to involuntarily encounter him, are still to be fully understood. Bay News 9 reported that the pedestrian-involved incident caused the westbound side of Manatee Avenue to be closed for about 45 minutes, with traffic resuming thereafter.