A school bus with no students on board was involved in a crash with a car in Fort Myers on Friday morning.
The crash occurred around 9 a.m. at Edison Avenue and Highland Avenue. Two people were on the school bus and one was in the Ford Fusion that collided with it. All three received some degree of injury and were transported to a local hospital. The two people on the bus suffered minor injuries, while the man driving the Fusion was airlifted as a trauma alert.
Security camera footage from a business across the street shows the Ford Fusion traveling well over the speed limit down Edison Avenue, so fast that the car swerves at the stop sign before it can be seen crashing into the school bus.
The Fort Myers Police Department says it suspects the Ford’s driver was impaired by drugs or alcohol.
A business owner near the crash site says this was a terrible wreck, but he was not surprised to see it happen.
“It’s crazy, it’s kinda normal out here,” said Billy Barrios, owner of Southwest Florida Auto Brokers, located at 3444 Edison Ave. “We have a four-way stop sign and people blow (by) it all the time. It’s been a common issue and, I mean, it’s just a matter of time… we think every day, something like that is going to happen.”
There is a push to make the area safer.
Barrios said he has two kids of his own.
“It’s scary to think they’re in the corner, waiting for the bus stop or something like that, if something like that would happen you know I’d be heartbroken,” Barrios said.
Nesto Puentes said people need to be safe. Puentes lost his brother because of a traffic crash.
He witnessed the crash on Friday and ran over to help.
“I just made sure he was all right you know I asked him, was he OK? I ran, I ran real quick just to see,” Puentes said.
Puentes prays the driver is OK. He also prays that someone does something to slow everyone down.
“I’m just hoping the city will do some thing to improve this corner here,” Barrios said.