St. Johns County, FL — April 4, 2025, A man was killed following a bus accident that occurred at around 11:15 A.M. on southbound I-95.

An investigation is underway after a bus accident left one person dead during the morning hours of April 4th . According to official statements, a 25-year-old man from Orlando was traveling in a Nissan Altima on I-95 in the southbound lanes near State Road 206, when for unknown reasons the vehicle lost control and left the roadway where it struck a disabled charter bus.

When first responders arrived on the scene, they found that the driver had sustained fatal injuries and he was pronounced deceased. At this time there has been no further information released from the accident, including the identity of the deceased driver or what led to the vehicle going off-road, however this remains an ongoing investigation and more details may be released by authorities in the future.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When a vehicle leaves the road and strikes a disabled bus, especially on a major highway like I-95, the first question that needs answering is why was the bus there and was it properly secured? Crashes involving stopped or disabled commercial vehicles are more common than many people realize, and in my experience, they’re rarely simple accidents. They often raise questions about visibility, warnings, and what steps—if any—were taken to prevent a secondary crash.

According to early reports, the Nissan went off the road and hit a charter bus that was already disabled. We don’t yet know what caused the car to veer off the road, but regardless of that, commercial buses that break down on a highway shoulder are expected to follow strict safety protocols. That includes placing warning triangles or flares, turning on hazard lights, and pulling as far off the roadway as possible. If those steps weren’t taken—or if the bus wasn’t fully out of the lane—then the driver of the bus company may still bear some legal responsibility for creating a hazard, even if they weren’t behind the wheel at the time.

That said, the cause of the Nissan leaving the road is still unknown. Mechanical failure, distraction, fatigue, or a sudden maneuver to avoid something else on the road could all be possible. Investigators should be examining the vehicle’s tires, brakes, and steering components for signs of malfunction, and they should be reviewing phone records, traffic camera footage, and any available black box data to determine how the vehicle was behaving in the seconds leading up to the crash.

The challenge with cases like this is that it’s tempting to assume the driver simply lost control and nothing more could have been done. But that assumption ignores the role that a stationary commercial vehicle can play in worsening an already dangerous situation. I’ve handled cases where a properly secured vehicle didn’t pose a risk, and others where small lapses—like missing reflectors or poor placement—turned a breakdown into a fatal event.

At this point, we don’t have all the facts. But what we do know is that a young man lost his life, and the circumstances demand a closer look—not just at his actions, but at the condition and handling of the bus he struck. That’s the only way to know whether this was truly unavoidable, or if better precautions could have made a difference.