the semi driver told police<\/a> that he saw the bus stopped, tried to step on the brakes, but his \u201cbrakes were not working,\u201d causing the semi to swerve to the inside in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid hitting the bus.<\/p>\nThe impact crumpled the back of the school bus and caused major damage to the tractor-trailer.<\/p>\n
Back of school bus crumpled in crash with semi on Zoo Parkway (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Four children were injured and taken to the hospital, and the crash report notes a fifth person was also transported for their injuries. The injuries range from two broken legs to cuts to the head and chest pain. No updates have been released regarding the students\u2019 current conditions.<\/p>\n
Despite being cited for careless driving, officers noted in the crash report that the driver was not distracted at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n
Dalya Farah, an attorney with Farah and Farah who is representing the families of three of the injured students, said the next step is a deeper investigation into the truck itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will most likely inspect the truck. There\u2019s a lot of information on semi-trucks that we can\u2019t obtain otherwise,\u201d Farah said.<\/p>\n
Farah said inspection records and maintenance history will be critical in determining what caused the crash.<\/p>\n
Back of school bus crumpled in crash with semi on Zoo Parkway (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to a semi case, there could be a lot of factors that go into fault,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking into whether there was a brake failure, whether the truck was properly maintained, or if distracted driving played a role.\u201d<\/p>\n
The News4JAX I-TEAM also uncovered a history of crashes tied to the trucking company.<\/p>\n
Using the USDOT number on the truck, records show five other crashes linked to the same company over the past two years. It is unclear who was at fault in those incidents or whether the same driver was involved.<\/p>\n
Records also show 74 inspections were conducted during that time frame, though that number may reflect inspections across the company\u2019s entire fleet.<\/p>\n
Farah said those inspection records could provide key insight into whether the crash could have been prevented.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely terrifying,\u201d Farah said. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a kindergartener going through that trauma, especially on a trip to the zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n
News4JAX reached out to the trucking company, Universal Logistics Holdings, about the reported brake failure. A manager declined to answer questions.<\/p>\n
The investigation is focused on determining the cause of the crash, including whether the truck driver was distracted or if there were mechanical failures.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how this information would add to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The 37-year-old semi-truck driver who rear-ended a school bus carrying kindergarteners on a field trip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1039,6206,116,118,117,101275,729],"class_list":["post-224128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-duval-county","tag-i_team","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-school-bus-crash","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}