MIAMI (WSVN) - A school bus driver and her aide have been rescued after being trapped inside their bus following a serious crash with a dump truck in Miami.
Miami Fire Rescue went through the painstaking process of rescuing the aide trapped inside a mangled school bus after an early Thursday morning crash.
7News cameras rolled as he was carefully pulled out and loaded onto a gurney.
“What was interesting is that he was talking to us the whole time. He maintained a very good sense of humor, so all those factors were positive for him, and an hour later, we got him out,” Miami Fire Rescue Capt. Ignatius Carroll said.
The crash happened on 12th Avenue near Northwest 67th Street just before 6:30 a.m. The bus just began its route and there were no children on board.
“A school bus was traveling northbound on 12th Avenue and there was a dump truck, privately owned dump truck, that was coming out of the school, backing up, and there was a collision between both vehicles,” Miami Police officer Michael Vega said.
That collision mangled the side of the bus so severely where the aide was sitting on the passenger side that it pinned one of his legs. First responders were challenged by the small space they had to work with.
“We had metal that was wrapped around his leg,” Carroll said, “so you had an extrication team working on trying to free him by gradually removing pieces of metal, but we also had to remove the roof from above him, and then you also had to make an access area for them to get in.”
The woman driving the bus was able to walk away, but she was still taken to the hospital. The aide, a man in his 40s, last listed as being in stable condition, arrived at Ryder Trauma Center.
Hours later, the bus was towed away, and the damage from the impact and rescue even more clear.
The garbage truck safely backed out and drove away as well.
“It’s a very unfortunate incident that took place but fortunate that there were no children on the bus because several of the seats towards the front of the bus were damaged, and this could have been a more serious incident,” Carroll said.
Great Waste & Recycling Service issued a statement following the crash reading in part, “We are thankful that no children were on the school bus at the time of the accident. We are investigating the facts and awaiting more details on the accident itself.”
Neither driver involved in the incident was cited.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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