A Wednesday morning crash left one man in the hospital with serious injuries after he rear-ended a Regional Transit System bus on Northwest 39th Avenue.
At about 8:30 a.m., a man in his 70s was driving westbound in a Toyota pickup truck and hit a route-eight RTS bus as it was leaving a stop near the intersection of Northwest 21st Street and Northwest 39th Avenue.
The man was driving about 45 mph, Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said.
The man was rushed to Shands at UF with multiple broken bones and internal bleeding, Tobias said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the man was recovering from surgery for his injuries, said RTS spokesman Chip Skinner.
The bus driver and three passengers evacuated the bus, Skinner said.
None of them were hurt.
However, the driver was taken to Shands as a precaution.
GPD closed a westbound lane on Northwest 39th Avenue after the crash until about 11 a.m.
This was the first of three accidents Wednesday that involved cars rear-ending buses, Skinner said.
At about 4:30 p.m., a car hit a route 75 bus on Southwest Archer Road and shortly after 5:30 p.m., another car crashed into a route 13 bus on Southwest 13th Street.
Skinner recommended that drivers pay more attention to the road to prevent accidents like these.
“It really comes down to people being aware of their surroundings,” he said.
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
