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NTSB: 2018 bus crash that killed one, injured dozens was caused by driver's 'unknown medical event'

The NTSB did not specify what the medical emergency was at the time.

LOXLEY, Ala. — Editor's Note: The video featured above is from March 13, 2018, the day of the bus crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board has released a probable cause for the 2018 crash that killed a bus driver and injured dozens of people.

The NTSB determined that "the probable cause of the motorcoach roadway departure and crash into a ravine near Loxley, Alabama, was the incapacitation of the driver due to an unknown medical event."

The bus was heading back to Channelview, Texas around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 13, 2018 from a band competition at Disney World when authorities said it entered a median of the highway and plunged 50 feet into a ravine off Interstate 10.

The driver was identified as 65-year-old Harry Caligone from Houston. He was a 15-year driver with First Class Tours, the company that provided the bus. He was pronounced dead at the scene. 

"He wouldn’t put no kids in danger. That is not him,” said Alisa Louis, Caligone’s wife at the time of the crash. "That is not his demeanor. If it ain’t right, he won’t do it. And I’m not just saying this because I know him. He is the sweetest, he would give you the last of anything he got.”

Louis said her husband was seen by a doctor the week before the trip because he had to pass a fitness test. 

She says the doctor confirmed her husband did not have any chronic medical conditions and was in good health.

"Harry was a long-time driver for our company, and we are deeply saddened for this loss. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family," according to a statement from First Class Tours of Houston that was released at the time of the crash.

The NTSB did not specify what the medical emergency was at the time.

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