{"id":83562,"date":"2026-10-06T19:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=83562"},"modified":"2026-10-06T19:49:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:49:03","slug":"2-dead-in-winter-haven-school-bus-crash-ntsb-investigates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/10\/06\/2-dead-in-winter-haven-school-bus-crash-ntsb-investigates\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Dead in Winter Haven School Bus Crash: NTSB Investigates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Polk County Sheriff\u2019s office gives an update on Monday\u2019s fatal school bus crash\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6YGLg_XG1Zg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd updated the public on the investigation following Monday&#8217;s fatal school bus collision in Winter Haven:<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Details &amp; Casualties<\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"575950\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #575950;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"639\" height=\"361\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-4.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-83563 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-4.webp 639w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-4-300x169.webp 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fatalities:<\/strong> Two people were killed in the crash \u2014 a 10th-grade girl who attended Winter Haven High School and 26-year-old <strong>Deshawn Smith<\/strong>, who was driving his Jeep to work within the speed limit when the crash occurred.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Injuries:<\/strong> Of the 35 surviving passengers aboard the school bus, three remain hospitalized as of Tuesday but are expected to make a full recovery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Crash Dynamics &amp; Investigation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Incident Sequence:<\/strong> The collision involved multiple vehicles (including the school bus, an SUV, and a Jeep). The school bus crossed into the oncoming lane and ultimately overturned.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Contributing Factors:<\/strong> Wet road conditions from rain are being evaluated as a potential factor in the crash.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Federal Oversight:<\/strong> The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has opened a formal safety investigation into the incident alongside local law enforcement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The investigation into the cause of the crash remains ongoing.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=476&#038;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpolkcountysheriff%2Fvideos%2F1751046356156173%2F&#038;show_text=false&#038;width=267&#038;t=0\" width=\"267\" height=\"476\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowFullScreen=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd updated the public on the investigation following Monday&#8217;s fatal school bus collision in Winter Haven: Key Details &amp; Casualties Crash Dynamics &amp; Investigation The investigation&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC91bm5hbWVkLTQud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IjIgRGVhZCBpbiBXaW50ZXIgSGF2ZW4gU2Nob29sIEJ1cyBDcmFzaDogTlRTQiBJbnZlc3RpZ2F0ZXMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.nzwTfsMWE4cMOZoJq6e2Z59MHhJz0z7p7yptctcFsMoMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC91bm5hbWVkLTQud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IjIgRGVhZCBpbiBXaW50ZXIgSGF2ZW4gU2Nob29sIEJ1cyBDcmFzaDogTlRTQiBJbnZlc3RpZ2F0ZXMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.nzwTfsMWE4cMOZoJq6e2Z59MHhJz0z7p7yptctcFsMoMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[17845,17844,15238,16833,17792,15190,17793],"class_list":["post-83562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-deshawn-smith","tag-florida-traffic-accident","tag-grady-judd","tag-ntsb-investigation","tag-school-bus-crash","tag-winter-haven","tag-winter-haven-high-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83574,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83562\/revisions\/83574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}