The Florida Highway Patrol has identified the 72-year-old woman who was killed early Monday morning when her vehicle slammed into the back of a school bus running a route near Weirsdale.
Gail P. Puskas, of Umatilla, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash after her 2006 GMC Yukon collided with the 2016 Marion County school bus driven by 52-year-old Bonnie Brown Sieg, of Silver Springs. The bus was stopped in the 11600 block of SE Hwy. 42 with its emergency stop lights activated to pick up a student when the crash took place. That student was struck by the side of the bus and flying debris from the SUV, a Florida Highway Patrol report states.
The student was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. Neither the driver nor any of the other five passengers on the bus were hurt during the crash. It hasn’t been determined if alcohol was a factor, the FHP report says.