A reported crash with injuries on Jacksonville's Southside Wednesday morning may have pitted a school bus against a garbage truck. The wreck happened on University Boulevard at Barnes Road in the Englewood area, and the bus was later hauled away with a damaged windshield.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office was responding to a reported crash with injuries at that intersection, News4JAX reported. The call came in just before 7 a.m. and indicated the crash possibly involved a school bus and a garbage truck.
What We Know About the Bus
A News4JAX crew at the scene saw the school bus being towed away with damage to its windshield. That is the clearest visual detail so far, and it points to the front of the bus taking a hit.
The station also reached out to Jacksonville Fire and Rescue to learn about any possible transports or other injuries. As of the latest reporting, that information had not been made public in the available coverage.
Still Unanswered
Details remain thin. The number of people hurt, whether anyone was taken to a hospital, and the cause of the crash have not been confirmed. Nothing in the available reporting establishes who was driving either vehicle or whether students were on board.
A Rough Year for Duval Buses
The Southside wreck follows a rough stretch for Duval County school buses earlier this year. On April 8, a school bus and a truck collided near the Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens during a field trip, and Jacksonville Today reported that eight first and second grade students were taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Days earlier, on April 2, a commercial truck rear-ended a bus carrying kindergartners headed to the zoo, according to an earlier Jacksonville Today report. That crash happened as the bus crossed train tracks on Zoo Parkway at about 10:30 a.m. The outlet's own accounts differ on how many students were hurt, reporting four injured in one story and five in another.
Jacksonville Today later noted that sheriff's office crash data recorded 37 crashes near the zoo over the previous six months, one of them fatal. The Florida Department of Transportation told the outlet it reviews reported crashes on state roads and, if opportunities are identified, will work to evaluate and implement appropriate improvements after investigations conclude, according to that coverage.
