School Bus Crashes Into Lake in North Tampa

Marlene Smith, Rebecca Chesser and Cynthia Faulkner were waiting for their kids to be dropped off.

Though it is not officially known what went wrong with the bus yet, Sierra said the brakes weren’t working.

“That lake is deep, and there are big alligators, 10 and 12-foot alligators that live in that lake”, Faulkner said.

“I grabbed a kindergartener’s arms and put her around my neck and brought her to land, and then I went back”, he said.

All students and the bus driver have been accounted for, and there are no reported serious injuries.

The bus took down a signpost and part of a tree before flipping on its side in the water on Thursday in Hillsborough County, located outside of Tampa, authorities said.

“He has a good heart and always wants to help people around him”, Deborah Sierra, the boy’s mother, told the Times. The district hopes to get board approval to buy 200 more buses on September 29. You would think they’d have DOT inspections or something on a daily basis.

School administrators and counselors will be at Mary E. Bryant Elementary School today to talk to students and offer support.