Bus loses control, slams into trees, building

Bus smashed into the front of an Amscot check cashing store on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. [BayNews 9] | Video: The harrowing ride | Aerial from the scene

ST. PETERSBURG - A PSTA bus ran out of control on Central Avenue this morning, slammed into two trees and uprooted a concrete utility pole before smashing into the front of a check-cashing business.

Only minor injuries were reported.

Witnesses said bus No. 2661 was headed west on Central Avenue at 32nd Street about 9 a.m.

Seconds later, witnesses reported hearing screeching brakes.

The bus slammed into a tree on the north side of the street, continued another 50 feet and uprooted a utility pole.

Antwan Lane, 34, who watched the bus ricochet from the tree to the pole, thought that would be the end of it.

But then Lane said the wheels started "spinning out of control" and the 35-foot-long bus barreled across the avenue, aimed at the Central Plaza shopping center.

The bus ran over a tree at the plaza entrance. Several witnesses said the 26,000-pound bus went airborne.

"All I was doing was praying," said witness Wendy Anderson. "Lord, stop the bus.''

The left front end of the bus crashed into a portion of an H & R Block tax store and an Amscot store, where Felicia Taylor, 34, was the only customer waiting in line to cash a check.

"It didn't look like it was going to stop,'' said Taylor, her hands and voice still shaking. Taylor ran out the back door, smelling gasoline.

Gary Mohler, 53 and retired from the Army, had stopped for a pack of Dorals at the Cheap Smokes cigarette shop. He parked his black 2007 Toyota 4runner, leaving his two terriers, Jake and Jock, in the front seat.

He caught of a glimpse of his truck spinning around. Then he saw the bus.

"It looked like something out of that movie Speed, the one with the runaway bus," he said.

The bus clipped the back end of Mohler's 4Runner, spinning the SUV 90 degrees and over the parking blocks. Jake and Jock were uninjured.

A total of five people received minor injuries, officials said.

The driver of the bus, identified as Travis Merriex, 37, has been a PSTA driver for a year and has one blemish on his driving record from a minor accident, PSTA spokesman Bob Lasher said.

Two people -- Merriex and an unidentified man who was in the parking lot -- were taken to local hospitals.

Investigators haven't said what caused the crash. Lasher said "everything that is possible will be investigated." 

-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer

Top Photo:  Bystanders comfort each other near the scene of an accident where a PSTA bus crashed into an Amscot financial services business at 3266 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg this morning. Click to enlarge. [James Borchuck | Times]

Bottom photo: Still surveillance photo from inside the Amscot check cashing store. Click to enlarge.

 

-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer