Mesa, Arizona: Two Dead in Crash Between School Bus and Car on Southern Avenue

Two people died on Friday afternoon in Mesa after a passenger vehicle and a school bus collided near Southern Avenue and 80th Street, Mesa police said. Both adults who were in the passenger vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the school bus was taken to a local hospital for treatment, and his condition was not known on Friday evening.

What police said about the crash

Officers responded at around 4:30 p.m. on Friday, November 6, to what the department called a serious crash between the school bus and the passenger vehicle in east Mesa. Police said the two adults in the passenger vehicle died from the injuries they suffered in the collision.

"Both adult occupants of the passenger vehicle sustained fatal injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene. The school bus driver was transported to a local hospital for medical treatment, and his condition is not known at this time," Mesa Police Detective Jose Aguirre said in the department account of the crash, reported by FOX 10 Phoenix.

The Arizona Republic reported the same basic facts from the police release, which was issued shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday. Officers stayed at the scene through the evening to investigate how the crash happened, police said.

No students were on the bus

Police confirmed that no students were on the bus at the time of the collision. In the first police account it was still unclear whether the bus had carried students earlier in the afternoon, and officials later confirmed that the bus was empty of students when the crash happened.

That confirmation was the main relief in a crash that killed two people. The bus driver was the only person on the bus, and he was taken to a hospital. Police did not give his condition in the release issued on Friday evening, and they did not say which hospital treated him.

When The Arizona Republic reached Mesa police on Friday evening, the department said no further information was available that night. Police did not say which school district the bus belonged to, and they did not identify the type of passenger vehicle involved in the crash.

Southern Avenue closed during the investigation

Police closed the westbound lanes of Southern Avenue at Hawes Road while the investigation continued on Friday evening. The department advised drivers to avoid the area and use other routes.

The closure sat on one of the main east and west roads in that part of Mesa, and it remained in place as officers worked at the scene near 80th Street. Police did not give a time for the road to reopen in the Friday release.

What police have not released

Police released no names on Friday. There was no word about what caused the crash, and no report on Friday night said whether either vehicle crossed into the path of the other.

The two deaths, the injured bus driver and the closed road were the full confirmed picture at the end of Friday. Any account of the cause will have to wait for the Mesa police investigation, which was still under way at the scene on Friday evening.

For drivers in east Mesa, the practical news on Friday night stayed simple. Westbound Southern Avenue was closed at Hawes Road, police asked motorists to stay away from the area, and two families were waiting for names that police had not yet released.