2 Boys Die When Tire Smashes Bus Windshield

A freak accident killed two 9-year-old boys Monday when a 250-pound tire broke loose from a moving truck, bounded across a median and smashed through the windshield of a school bus traveling in the opposite direction on a busy downtown highway, officials and witnesses said.

Twelve children and two adults were treated at hospitals for cuts and bruises, officials said. A third adult was in “gravely critical condition,” said Don Delvecchio of Jackson Memorial Hospital.

The bus was carrying fourth-graders from Tropical Elementary School on a field trip to a museum, Dade County Schools spokesman Harry Fraind said.

There was no warning of the accident, said Michelle Casas, a chaperon accompanying the children.

“There was a crash that came through the window--it was a tire,” she said. “I don’t know where it came from, or anything. Before you know it, it was on top of the teacher and the children there. . . . I’m in shock.”

The two children who died apparently were sitting in the front seat of the row across from the driver, Fraind said. That side of the bus took the brunt of the impact of the tire, which smashed the windshield and crumpled the roof.

The bus driver managed to stop without crashing. Afterward, young passengers stood along the highway, some crying.

Highway Patrol Lt. Noel Roy said investigators had not determined why the truck lost the tire.