By Linda Trischitta
Sun Sentinel
PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — A Tamarac man died and his passenger was hospitalized Thursday when a Toyota Camry crashed into the back of a Broward County Public Schools bus in Pembroke Pines.
Pembroke Pines police said Dean Eric Bass, 36, was the driver. Claude Murray, Jr., 55, of Palatka, was riding with him. Murray’s injuries were not life-threatening, the agency said.
The red sedan became wedged beneath the rear end of the bus as the sun was rising over Pembroke Road, east of Palm Avenue.
Fire rescue crews from Miramar and Pembroke Pines responded to the emergency that happened on the border between the cities. They dismantled the Toyota and took the passenger, who had serious injuries, to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, officials said.
There were no children on the bus, which was headed to Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines.
Bus driver Joseph Jean-Philippe, 49, of North Miami Beach, was not hurt. He was at the crash site for much of the morning and appeared distraught. A school district official at the scene did not let him talk about what happened.
The bus was stopped in traffic at 6:28 a.m. when it was hit from behind, said Sgt. John Baker, traffic homicide supervisor for Pembroke Pines police.
Speed may have been a factor in the crash, Baker said. That part of Pembroke Road is a 45 mph zone.
“There were no braking skid marks to indicate somebody tried to stop before they hit the bus,” Baker said.
With the Toyota beneath it, two of the four rear wheels of the big yellow bus were lifted off the ground.
One dead in Pines crash that wedged car under Broward school bus https://t.co/jBNfTtGgwp pic.twitter.com/reY2xgHkua
— Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) May 26, 2016
Dave Brooks, a foreman with Davis Electric, was driving east to work along Pembroke Road.
“It was just getting light out,” he said.
The business is directly across the street from where the collision happened.
“I heard what sounded like a transformer blew, or a bomb went off,” said Brooks. “I saw smoke and mist, and then I noticed a red car wedged under the bus. It had plowed right under.”
Brooks said he has taken some EMT courses and wanted to help. He swung his car into his employer’s lot and ran across busy Pembroke Road, where he said westbound traffic was still moving past the accident.
A man, possibly the bus driver, a woman and a police officer who arrived in an unmarked SUV were trying to help the men in the Toyota, Brooks said, and he joined them. Paramedics and police had not yet arrived.
“We couldn’t open either door,” Brooks said. Murray, the passenger, was moaning, and scared, and the group outside the car tried to comfort him.
“He was saying, ‘Please get me out of here’ and ‘Where am I?’ and ‘What’s going on?’” Brooks said.
Brooks described how the passenger’s seat was reclined all the way, as if he may have been sleeping prior to the crash.
“That’s probably what saved his life,” Brooks said.
He went to the driver’s side, found the top of the car was crushed and said he could not reach the man inside.
“There was not enough room to get my hand in,” Brooks said. “I knew there was nothing nobody could do for him.”
Members of the group had called 911, and when responders arrived, Brooks said he watched them cut off the roof and doors before he headed to his job.
“I feel bad for the families,” Brooks said. “My condolences to the [driver’s] family. He didn’t look that old. There’s a family grieving today.”
Kids walking past on their way to school and eastbound drivers on Pembroke Road gasped at the scene that also drew a crowd of people who watched the emergency responders work.
At 9 a.m., a tow truck lifted the school bus and a second tow truck pulled the Toyota free.
Blue privacy tarps were placed around the car as technicians and firefighters worked to remove the driver’s body before it could be taken away by the Broward County medical examiner’s office.
The investigation into the crash is continuing, Pembroke Pines police said. The agency asked anyone with information about the crash to call 954-431-2200, email tips@ppines.com, or call Broward County Crime Stoppers, at 954-493-8477.
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©2016 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)