White House offers support following catastrophic bus crash

[Photo courtesy Marion County Fire Rescue]

Following the bus crash that killed eight people and sent 38 people to the hospital, Marion County and its first responders received a special extension of support from the highest office in the land—the White House.

The Marion County Board of County Commissioners, Marion County Fire Rescue Chief James Banta and MCFR spokesperson James Lucas received word from the White House within hours of the deadly crash early Tuesday.

At 6:35 a.m. on May 14, the allegedly impaired driver of a Ford Ranger pickup truck, Bryan Maclean Howard, 41, veered into the lane of oncoming traffic on State Road 40. The truck collided with an International bus carrying 53 farmworkers on their way to Cannon Farms in Dunnellon. The bus veered off the roadway, through two fences, hit a tree and overturned. Eight people were killed and 38 people were hospitalized, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The federal government’s message of support came from Rick Hart, the advisor to the office of intergovernmental affairs for counties. He said he was “reaching out from the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to offer support to Marion County in the aftermath of (the May 14) fatal bus crash.”

“Please let us know if the county is in need of any additional resources at this time,” Hart wrote.

In addition to the extension of support from the White House, Lucas said the office of Florida Governor Ron Desantis pledged its support in response to the emergency.

“It went from working a big accident here, a regional news story, to being a statewide story to being a national and international news story, with the White House reaching out for to offer assistance, the governor’s office reaching out and elected officials reaching out,” Lucas said.

Lucas said he could not recall any instances where MCFR treated and transported that many patients within at least the past 10 years.

“For me, it showed me the gravity of the situation that I was standing there looking at,” Lucas said.

State Senator Marco Rubio also pledged his support, in addition to leaders from the Mexican Consulate of Orlando.

“Senator Rubio’s Office is offering its support to transport patients back, to take the deceased and transport them back to Mexico or their countries of origin,” Lucas said. “This quickly went way bigger than Marion County.”