Eight people are dead after a bus carrying dozens of farm workers in Florida crashed on Tuesday morning, according to state highway patrol.
Another eight people are in critical condition and 40 others are in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Florida officials said the bus was carrying around 53 farm workers on their way to Cannon Farms, a watermelon farm in Dunnellon.
The site of the accident, State Road 40 West, has been temporarily closed.
The collision involved a bus and a 2001 Ford Ranger truck, which “collided in a sideswiped manner”, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said in a statement.
The bus then drove through a fence and overturned, according to the statement.
Aerial footage of the bus after the incident showed it lying on its side, its front hood nearly entirely removed and the metal frame crumpled.
The owner of the private company was also reportedly on board the bus and was sent to hospital after the crash.
A spokesperson for the Marion County Sherriff’s office told reporters during a press briefing on Tuesday that there had been “30 plus ambulances on the scene” helping victims.
He said that traffic in the area “is a problem” and that accidents do occur there despite officials best efforts to curb them.
Traffic is particularly difficult “this time a year”, he said, due to the uptick in “migrant workers that are in our county on buses just like this”.
“We will be closed today out of respect to the losses and injuries endured early this morning in the accident that took place to the Olvera Trucking Harvesting Corp,” Cannon Farms wrote on its Facebook page.
“Please pray with us for the families and the loved ones involved in this tragic accident.”
A school bus spotted near the scene was used to transport some people to hospital, local media reported. Marion County Fire Rescue confirmed in a statement that a school bus was not involved in the collision
The accident occurred in Dunnellon, roughly 45 miles (72km) south of the state’s capitol, Gainesville, at approximately 06:35 EST (11:35 BST).
The cause of the collision remains unknown.
Officials said the Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.
Source Agencies
