A Miami-Dade Transit bus crashed into a building Thursday morning, resulting in two dozen injuries and the tying up of traffic during rush hour.

The bus was traveling west along the busy 36th and Northwest 15th Avenue when it crashed into a southbound SUV, CBS4 reports. It appears in an attempt to avoid the collision with the oncoming SUV, the bus driver swerved to the left and smashed into the South Florida Fixtures Warehouse store. The accident happened around 6:30 a.m.

"It crashed and it started smoking and everything," passenger Rhina Irias said. "People fell, they flipped and they had to open the window to come out of the window."

Rescuers had to cut away parts of the bus in order to remove the driver. The driver was apparently trapped by metal window bars that ended up inside of the vehicle.

Firefighters and police treated 25 people, including the SUV driver's daughter. On the bus were 23 passengers, including students from Miami Jackson Senior High heading to morning classes.
The injuries of the passengers appeared to minor. The bus driver, experienced more serious injuries, but officials say they are still non-life-threatening extensive injuries. The injured were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Roughly 15 patients were taken to Ryder Trauma Center and the JMH emergency room.

"First units arrived found some people that were climbing out of the windows, some people walking out the rear door with cuts and bruises and we also had several other people that were unable to get out of the bus," said Ignatius Carroll with City of Miami Fire Rescue.

The county's public buses do not have seat belts.

The driver of the SUV was taken into custody for a bench warrant unrelated to the accident, according to Miami-Dade police.

The streets along the accident area were shut down as investigators examined the accident and the bus was removed from the building.

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