A St. Petersburg High School bus carrying 27 students and two adults collided with another vehicle Tuesday afternoon, prompting police to shut down all lanes of 9th Avenue North between MLK Street and Jackson Street while crews cleared the scene. Officials say those involved suffered only minor injuries, and no one required hospital transport.
The crash happened at the intersection of 9th Avenue North and 10th Street North, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department, as reported by WFLA. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the other vehicle involved. WFLA, which first reported the crash Tuesday afternoon, described the story as developing and noted that no further information was immediately available at the time of its report.
Investigators had not determined what caused the collision or whether either driver would face traffic citations, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. Officers closed 9th Avenue North in both directions between MLK Street and Jackson Street as the investigation got underway, causing street closures across the surrounding blocks.
A Crash in the Third Week of School
Tuesday's collision landed during just the third week of classes for Pinellas County Schools, which officially opened its 2026–2027 academic year on August 11. That timing puts the crash squarely within the stretch when new bus routes and driver routines are still settling in across the district.
The scale of that operation is significant. Pinellas County Schools runs a fleet of 333 buses driven by roughly 297 drivers, moving about 25,000 students daily and logging 9.1 million miles over the course of a school year, per the district's own transportation figures. When something goes wrong on even one route, families are typically notified through Bus Bulletin, the district's automated system that sends real-time texts, calls, or emails to parents and administrators about incidents, delays, or route changes.
St. Petersburg High School, the campus tied to Tuesday's bus, has deep roots in the city. Founded in 1898, the school now serves more than 1,700 students out of its Spanish Revival building at 2501 5th Avenue North, which opened in 1926 as the nation's first $1-million high school building and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Florida's Troubled School Bus Safety Record
Tuesday's crash also lands against a backdrop of unflattering statewide numbers. A nationwide safety study examining federal crash data from 2020 through 2024 ranked Florida 50th out of 50 states for school bus travel safety, recording a crash rate of 739.13 per 100,000 students transported daily — the highest in the country, according to Space Coast Daily.
A separate analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data from 2013 to 2022 found Florida recorded 74 fatal school bus accidents resulting in 76 deaths over that decade, placing the state second behind Texas nationwide for total fatal school bus crashes. Florida law does offer some protection for riders: under Florida Statute § 316.6145, all school buses purchased new after December 31, 2000, must be equipped with safety belts, and students are legally required to wear them whenever the bus is moving.
Pinellas County has seen its own tragedy on this front. In October 2025, an 88-year-old pedestrian was fatally struck by a Pinellas County school bus in Oldsmar while crossing at the intersection of Forrest Lakes Boulevard and Pine Avenue, a case Hoodline previously covered as the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigated.
What Remains Unclear
As of Tuesday, police had not released a cause for the crash or said whether citations would be issued to either driver. The number of occupants in the other vehicle also remained unreported. Those details, along with the extent of any district response beyond standard notification protocols, had not surfaced publicly as of the original report.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
