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Girl, 8, dies after car crashes into Citrus High School bus

The child was not wearing a seatbelt and died from injuries suffered in the crash, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.
 
An 8-year-old girl died when the car she was riding in crashed into the back of a school bus in Citrus County.
An 8-year-old girl died when the car she was riding in crashed into the back of a school bus in Citrus County. [ Photo illustration by ASHLEY DYE and CHRIS URSO | Times ]
Published May 14, 2021|Updated May 14, 2021

An 8-year-old girl died when the car she was riding in crashed into the back of a school bus in Citrus County.

The bus was carrying 30 Citrus High School students when the crash happened on Thursday afternoon in Hernando, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The bus had stopped and activated its lights to let students get off the bus when a 75-year-old man failed to stop and crashed into it, troopers said in a crash report.

The child was not wearing a seatbelt and later died from injuries suffered in the crash, troopers said.

The highway patrol did not release the names of the people involved in the crash because of its interpretation of Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution that was meant to protect crime victims but that deprives the public of information long available under Florida’s public records law.

Students on the bus were not injured.

John Stewart, the chaplain at a nearby VFW, told WFLA he was shocked by the crash.

“To look out here and see what happened and found out it’s a child that passed away,” he said. “Of course we were worried about the trauma of the kids on the bus, too.”

The driver and a 10-year-old passenger suffered minor injuries, troopers said.

An investigation continues.