OLDSMAR — When a school bus traveling on Curlew Road came to a stop Wednesday morning, so did the car behind it.
Problem was, a car trailing the first one didn't, authorities said.
As a result, one person had to be extricated from a car, three were sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and the driver thought to have caused the pileup was cited by authorities.
No one on the bus was injured.
The accident happened shortly after 6:30 a.m. near Curlew and Tampa roads. According to Pinellas County sheriff's deputies, the bus was going west — just west of Gull Aire Boulevard — when it stopped in the center lane for another school bus that had stopped to pick up children.
A 2000 Toyota Celica driven by Subatha Suthakaran, 18, of Oldsmar also stopped. But a third vehicle, a 2003 Saturn Ion driven by Courtney Fenton, 17, of Dunedin rear-ended the Celica and pushed it partly underneath the bus, deputies said.
After being extricated from her car, Suthakaran, her 17-year-old passenger, Rachelle Carnes of Oldsmar, and Fenton were taken to Mease Countryside Hospital. Fenton was cited for careless driving.
Daron Green, the bus driver, and his passengers — five children between the ages of 9 and 17, and two adult assistants — were picked up by another bus a short while later and continued on to Calvin Hunzinger School in Clearwater.
Keith Niebuhr can be reached at kniebuhr@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4146.
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