Three Killed In Church Bus Crash

SUV Had Blowout, Ran Bus Into Canal; Passers-by Rescued Kids

(CBS/AP)  A church bus filled with teenagers was hit by a sport utility vehicle and ran off the road, plunging into a canal and killing three teens, police said. One person was missing.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Roger Reyes tells CBS News passers-by who saw the accident jumped into the water and helped rescue the teenagers.

Reyes says the bus carrying 25 people from First Baptist Church at Hillsboro in Coconut Creek was returning late Saturday from an Orlando-area theme park when the accident happened.

Reyes said a Ford Explorer had a blowout and hit the bus, running it off the road and through a fence into a canal at about 10 p.m. The bus was completely submerged in about 16 feet of water, and divers were still in the water early Sunday searching for the missing person, he said.

"I was asleep," 13-year-old Christopher Thomas told The Palm Beach Post. "I heard a bump, we swerved, water came rushing in the window and I swam out."

A Broward County Sheriff's office deputy and passers-by jumped in the canal to pull people out immediately after the accident, Reyes said.

"There were 10 kids standing on the roof (of the bus) saying: `Help us, help us,'" said Laura Down, of Davie, who along with her husband was among the first on the scene.

The ages and identities of those killed and injured were not released. The injured were taken to three area hospitals.

Sylvia Williamson, the wife of the Rev. Jerry Williamson, the church's pastor, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper that most of the teens on the bus were from the church youth group.