Winter Haven crash footage Driver aids injured students

Oct 5

Victor Oquendo presents newly released dashcam footage of a car crossing the center line, striking a school bus and causing it to roll onto its side. ABC says bus driver Jessica Dye, 34, freed herself after being pinned and helped injured students. The report airs an emergency caller and an automated Apple Watch crash alert. It says 37 Winter Haven High School students were aboard and identifies the dead as tenth-grader Andina Luz Prieto Oyola, 16, traveling to her first cheer practice, and Deshawn Smith, 26, driving the following car. Superintendent Frederick Heid describes the painful conversation with a family. ABC says the other driver is a 23-year-old nursing student headed to work and cooperating with the ongoing investigation.

On October 5, 2026, a Winter Haven High School bus and three other vehicles were involved in a crash on Lucerne Park Road in Winter Haven, Florida. In his on-scene preliminary account, Sheriff Grady Judd says a westbound Chevrolet Malibu crossed the center line for an unknown reason and struck the eastbound bus near its rear wheels, causing it to lose traction and collide head-on with a silver Jeep. A tenth-grade girl on the bus and a person in the Jeep died. Judd reports 39 people aboard the bus: 37 high-school students, the driver and the driver's nine-year-old daughter. He reports about five to seven trauma alerts, other minor injuries and one person still critical, explicitly warning that the numbers and conditions could change. He says the Jeep, rather than the bus, caught fire. The Malibu driver was cooperating and had not been arrested. Superintendent Frederick Heid describes family contact and reunification, evacuation drills and the emergency response; board chair Justin Sharpless appeals for support for the bereaved family and school community. The traffic-homicide investigation was ongoing, and no final cause or finding of criminal responsibility was announced. ABC's October 6 update airs newly released dashcam footage and emergency-call/automated-watch alerts. It says driver Jessica Dye, 34, extricated herself after being pinned and helped injured students, and names the dead as tenth-grader Andina Luz Prieto Oyola, 16, and Deshawn Smith, 26. It describes the other driver as a 23-year-old nursing student headed to work and cooperating. Heid describes the painful family conversation. These compatible later details do not replace Judd's preliminary reconstruction, casualty qualifications or unresolved cause.