Pinellas County, FL — December 20, 2025, one person was killed and one was injured in a bus accident at about 8:30 p.m. in the 2700 block of Roosevelt Drive/State Road 686.

Authorities said a Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority bus allegedly ran a red light at Lake Carillon Drive/28th Street North and collided with Nissan Armada while turning left.

A passenger in the Nissan, a 57-year-old Clearwater woman, died from injuries suffered in the crash, according to authorities, while the driver, a 57-year-old Clearwater man, was hospitalized with serious injuries. Their names have not been made public yet.

The bus driver was seriously injured as well, authorities said.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Pinellas County crash at this time.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear that a city bus allegedly ran a red light and caused a fatal crash, their first reaction is often disbelief: How does something like that even happen? After all, buses are massive, highly visible vehicles operated by professional drivers. Many assume they’re among the safest on the road. But when something goes wrong, especially at an intersection, that assumption can quickly fall apart.

At this point, it’s not clear why the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority bus entered the intersection on Roosevelt Drive against the light. That’s the critical question. Until we know more, it's impossible to say whether this was a case of driver error, a malfunction or something else entirely. What we can say is that the answer will likely be found in the evidence, not assumptions.

In situations like this, the starting point should be a close look at the bus itself. Did it have an onboard camera system? Most transit buses do these days, and those systems can provide objective video of what the driver was doing and what the traffic light actually showed at the moment of impact. Then there's the vehicle’s onboard data system, the “black box” that can tell us how fast the bus was moving, whether brakes were applied and even how long the driver had been working that day.

Depending on whether the bus was on schedule or running behind, fatigue or pressure to stay on time might come into play. If the driver was distracted — by a phone, a passenger issue or anything else — that too could show up in the camera footage or driver logs.

Of course, the bus driver's actions are only part of the picture. There may be policies or procedures at the transit authority that contributed to the crash. Was this driver properly screened, trained and supervised? Had there been previous complaints or warning signs? I’ve handled cases where operators with long records of errors were still behind the wheel because no one took corrective action. If that’s what happened here, those decisions deserve scrutiny too.

At the end of the day, the people in the SUV, one of whom lost her life, deserve answers. And those answers won’t come from assumptions or vague statements in a press release. They’ll come from a methodical investigation that pulls together video evidence, data and personnel records to determine exactly what went wrong and why.

Key Takeaways:

• The central question is why the bus entered the intersection on a red light: driver error, distraction or another cause.
• Onboard cameras and data systems may provide key evidence about the crash timeline and driver behavior.
• Investigating driver qualifications, schedules and transit authority oversight could uncover additional contributing factors.
• Accountability requires more than just blaming the driver. It depends on what the evidence shows after a full investigation.
• Without answers rooted in evidence, we can't know whether this crash was avoidable, or how to prevent others like it.