WINTER HAVEN, FL (WFTS) — A stretch of Lucerne Park Road where two people were killed in Monday’s deadly school bus crash was already under study by the Florida Department of Transportation for possible improvements when the fatal crash occurred.
Arsenia Rodriguez lives just off Lucerne Park Road. She was walking her dog Monday when she saw ambulances responding to the crash.
“I was coming out walking my dog in the morning and I see the ambulance and everything and I was trying to figure out what was going on and until later on, I heard that it was about the school bus,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says serious crashes are not unusual along the road.
“That’s not the first time there’s been an accident. Every year, there’s always a really bad accident,” she said.
A review of crossover crash data from Signal Four Analytics shows 11 crashes on the portion of S.R. 544 where the bus crash happened between 2021 and 2025, including one fatal crash.
Maury Ashick, who lives off the road, says traffic is especially difficult in the morning.
“It’s a zoo every day. My wife leaves at 6:15 a.m., but if you try to get out of here at 7 o’clock in the morning, good luck,” Ashick said.
FDOT recently completed a Project Development and Environment (PD&E) study of about eight miles of SR 544 (Lucerne Park Road), from Martin Luther King Boulevard to State Road 17. The agency is considering whether to widen the road to four lanes.
The proposed improvements are intended to accommodate increased traffic demand, including truck traffic, generated by projected growth in Polk County.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says the county's population growth has outpaced its road infrastructure.
“We’ve moved a population greater than the city of Lakeland and Bartow together into this county in the last five years, but the state has not given us the roads for 150,000 new people,” Judd said.
Tampa Bay 28 reporter Rebecca Petit reached out to FDOT for an update on the proposed improvements.
An FDOT spokesperson says completing the entire eight-mile corridor would cost more than $100 million. However, construction is not currently funded.
Rodriguez says she hopes that changes so the road can eventually be widened.
“If it was expanded, it would’ve prevent that [crash] from happening. And I hope that it will prevent something from happening later on in the future,” Rodriguez said.
The FDOT project remains subject to future funding and decisions about the proposed improvements.
Share Your Story with Rebecca
Rebecca Petit is dedicated to telling your stories from every corner of Polk County. She knows how growth has been a major discussion point for the area, and the impact it’s had on some of our most vulnerable populations. You can connect with Rebecca by using the form below.
.
'My heart breaks': Woman describes helping injured students after deadly school bus crash in Polk County
A woman on her way to work Monday morning found herself helping injured Winter Haven High School students after a school bus crash that killed two people.
