​​About 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday, January 25, 2006, a 31-year-old truck driver, operating a 75,360-pound 2004 Freightliner truck tractor and 1998 Wabash box trailer combination unit (Freightliner), departed High Springs, Florida, on an 85-mile trip to a company warehouse in Jacksonville, Florida. The driver was transporting a load of bottled water. Meanwhile, about 3:05 p.m., a 48-year-old school bus driver began her afternoon route in a 1996 Thomas Built school bus, Union County bus no. 13.

The northbound school bus was stopped on State Route (SR) 121 at bus stop no. 10, near 75th SW Terrace, to discharge two students. A 1993 Pontiac Bonneville—occupied by a 15-year-old driver and six passengers, ages 20 months to 15 years—was stopped behind the ​school bus. As the school bus was beginning to proceed, the Freightliner collided with the rear of the Pontiac and the bus. Police estimated the speed of the Freightliner to be 62 mph.

The Freightliner and the Pontiac continued forward from the impact area, departing the travel lanes to the right. The Freightliner then traveled 260 feet and collided with a 21-inch-diameter pine tree. The Pontiac was pushed 272 feet to its final position, where it was destroyed in a postcrash fire. The school bus was pushed a distance of 328 feet and came to rest on the right side of the road. Both the Freightliner and the school bus sustained extensive impact damage.

All seven occupants of the Pontiac were killed. Three of the nine students on the school bus were ejected from the rear of the vehicle and landed on highway pavement, seriously injured. One other student sustained serious injuries and was extricated from the bus by firefighters. The school bus driver, who was wearing a lap shoulder belt, also sustained serious injuries. Five  students and the truck driver received minor injuries. The students who had been discharged from the bus just before the accident were not injured.​

​We determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the truck driver to maintain alertness due to fatigue from obtaining inadequate rest. Contributing to the accident was the failure of Crete Carrier Corporation to exercise proper oversight of the driver’s hours of service.