now and what caused this. abc action news reporter corey dierdorff is there now checking with authorities. corey? >> reporter: good morning. like you said the interstate still completely shut down. crews trying to open up southbound 275 now. you can see them spreading out hazmat material, that cloud of dust, as that dust hoping to suck up some of that oil from the accident. some debris in the roadway. they are looking to clear it now. if you go to the other side northbound i-275 you can see the semi has been removed, that is the van in the center of this accident, let's look at video from earlier. here's what happened just before midnight according to fhp. the van was disabled and stopped in the center lane on southbound 275, with no lights on when a semi traveling southbound at full speed also in that same center lane didn't see the vehicle, slammed into the back of that van with the driver still inside and according to witness that's impact instantly caused that

both the van and semi crossed over the center lane through the wires and came to rest on northbound 275 facing oncoming traffic. the male driver of the van has been killed. the name hasn't yet been released. a lot of work to be done out here. some very heavy steel wires that go in the middle of the interstate will need to be repaired as well as the road will need to be checked out as that van was on fire. they will need to see if there was damage to the roadway. still an extensive closure expected northbound but like we said southbound they are hoping to get open just as soon as possible. janelle thrntion is going to cause a traffic mess for rush hour. what are the workarounds looking like? >> we've watched this on the fdot cameras. this camera positioned just north of riddleton way. let's look at the crash on a map, again 275 closed now in both directions from the split with 75 all the way to bearss. letting cars get off at the 75

come down bruce b downs and you get back on the interstate either at bearss or fletcher. you can do that same alternate route but in reverse if you're heading northbound. or you can take a us-41 depending on where you're coming from and where you're going. again, as the morning pushes on if the southbound lanes haven't reopened we're going to see significant backups. prepare to leave early and we'll let you know as soon as this clears. let's look at the weather. i don't know if i'm just a little warmer out. this morning. the rivergate tower tampa camera showing you it's nice and clear and dry, but check out these temperatures! low to mid-50s across tampa bay. most of the temperatures are 10 time. winds are still pretty light. cloud cover in the mix. check out these highs today. in hillsborough county we're

but it's not just us. even to the north, in citrus county low 70s today! that's pretty awesome, right? no rain in sight until after sunset tonight. and then our rain chances start to go way up, by very early tomorrow morning. even a marginal risk for some severe storms. more on that and time it out coming up in the 7-day forecast. it is 5:33. it may seem hard to believe but there's no time for recess for a lot of school kids in florida right now. however, a bill up for debate this morning at the state capitol would change that. abc action news reporter adam winer joins us now live with more on the debate that is expected in just a few hours. good morning, adam. >> reporter: good morning. this is a debate you'll remember that really caught fire in polk county recently and some parents and teachers really rallied together to make sure they could convips the school board to bring back

well, the bill debated today would bring back recess to kids all over florida. this is house bill 833. it would make recess mandatory for florida public school students in k-5 and would require 20 minutes of playtime everyday. the issue first on the agenda today for the education committee in the florida house of representatives. i've talked to several local teachers about this issue, many tell me they notice a drastic improvement in student energy and ability to pay attention in class when they do have recess. however, school administrators say they've phased out recess at many schools to make more time for state academic requirements, even claiming that school days might have to be made longer if this law were to actually pass. there are going to be several parents including one from polk county actually testifying in front of this house committee, in support of this bill. they hope that this will lead to recess everywhere.

for now live in tampa, adam winer, abc action news. 5:35. coming into the newsroom overnight -- florida officials need your help to find two missing children who may be with a suspected killer. fdle just issued this missing child alert. about two hours ago. for 4-year-old edward gamez and his younger sister lizette games flores. police say their family is wanted for murder and believed to be with his girlfriend and these children. the family was last seen in fells mere near vero friday. we'll post their photos on our facebook page so you can share them. 5:35. in democracy 2016 -- a new poll is out, and shows hillary clinton's lead among democratic voters is shrinking. iowa is just a week out from its caucuses last night. the audience was able to ask questions to presidential hopefuls bernie sanders, hillary clinton and martin o'malley.

on-one with the audience. sanders talked about raising taxes, clinton focused on her prior experience. >> we will raise -- we will raise taxes, yes, we will. but also let us be clear, chris, because there's a little disingenuity out there. we may raise taxes but we're also going to eliminate private health insurance premiums for individuals and for businesses. >> i've been on the front lines of change and progress since i was your age. i have been fighting to give kids and women and -- and the people who are left out and left behind a chance to make the most out of their own lives. >> the brand new poll shows clinton at 52%, sanders behind her at 38% among democratic voters. that's the closist it's been since the field went down to three candidates.

of democratic voters. republican candidates also will be in iowa before the caucus. the first gop debate thursday at 9:00. donald trump said he was not 100% certain he would participate in a debate cohosted by fox newschannel because he didn't think the moderator could treat him fairly. he also said he won the past debates noting they are good for his campaign. fox news responded to trump's president, he says he has to learn he can't pick the journalist. kelly was accused of asking tougher questions of him than we're learning about planning to pitch. money. he wants to expand access to retirement savings accounts. if your employer doesn't offer a retirement plan now the president wants to require your company that they automatically enroll you in an individual retirement account.

the white house says if these plans go into action more than 30 million people would have access to retirement savings accounts. here in hillsborough county the supervisor of elections office getting ready for the big voting change. today and tomorrow officials will demonstrate the new voting equipment that will be used to count your votes during this year's elections. first time the machines will be used, in the upcongress presidential -- upcoming presidential primary march 15th. more at votehillsborough.org. we could learn as soon as today who the bradenton new top cop will be. the police chief announced his retirement this past spring. headed up the department for more than 13 years. the city has been looking for his replacement since june. 5:38. the coast guard is being praised for saving the lives of 13 people after their large yacht began to take on water. this is a photo of the yacht, it's grainy but this is the 106th foot yacht here, serena 3 minutes before it savage 13

fort lauderdale beach. the captain issued a distress call shortly before 6:00 last night. one witness says the passengers were fortunate the yacht was fairly close to shore because it sank less than two hours later. right now it's unknown what caused it to sink. if you're in downtown tampa today you might run into unsavory characters. i'm talking about pirates. you may have heard they are planning to invade the city soon. the pirates are set to discuss with mayor bob buckhorn the advantages of surrendering tampa at noon. they demand the mayor hand over the key to the city to avoid a long and costly battle. we know the mayor will refuse and the pirates will invade during saturday's historic gasparilla invasion. pro wrestling returns to amalie tonight. wwe is taping an episode for "smackdown" to air thursday night. among the wrestlers scheduled

who wrestles under the name "biggy langston." prices start at just $20 and tickets still available for the 8:00 show. 275 closed in both directions due to a fatal crash between the northern apex, i-75 and bearss. if you go through there, i'll let you know how to get around it. >> fortunately as you head out the door this morning the weather will not be causing you any additional problems on the roads. temperatures not so cold this morning. starting off mainly in the 50s, we will be ending the day in the low to mid-70s. plenty of sunshine and fair weather clouds today. no rain in sight until after sunset. but then those rain chances and storm chances go way up overnight. i'll have more on that in florida's most accurate 7-day forecast. disney accused of illegally firing workers. we find out what happened at walt disney world according to

welcome back. 5:44. 52 degrees in tampa. live pictures here of a fiery and deadly crash scene on i- 275, it happened in the north and southbound lanes of the interstate between i-75 and the bearss avenue interchange. it's a long stretch of highway with no exits. no real workable way around this. janelle martinez is standing by with your alternate routes but expect major delays if you're heading southbound into tampa

we'll get you all the updates on alternates in a moment. classes at a north carolina college will go on as scheduled this morning following a campuswide lockdown overnight. police say a person with a gun prompted this lockdown at winston-salem state university. right now officials say no shots were fired, no one was hurt but the cam pass was locked down for nearly five hours. the person that showed the gun hasn't been arrested. the preliminary autopsy results on a 2-year-old boy who disappeared in tennessee show that child died from hypothermia. final autopsy results on noah chamberlin are expected back in two weeks but a district attorney says there are no signs of foul play in his death. noah will be buried tomorrow afternoon. he disappeared about two weeks ago while walking with his grandmother and 4-year-old sister. search teams found his body on thursday. authorities are calling his death a tragic accident. this morning at 5:45, we're getting a look at stunning dash cam video released by florida highway patrol.

importance of paying attention to florida's move over law. let's bring it full and explain what happened here. dash cam shows trooper mac mickens during a traffic stop last october on the florida turnpike. the trooper starts to get back in his car. another vehicle though runs off the road and hit mickens and his patrol car. his pelvis is shattered. he managed to pull himself you have and call for help however. troopers are reminding everyone of this move over law. it requires drivers to move over and give emergency vehicles space even if they are in the emergency lane. also this morning -- texas police searching for the person seen in this video here wielding a baseball bat during a really scary road rage incident. teenager shot this video in austin yesterday afternoon. not clear what led up to the argument on a busy stretch of road, you can see here though one man hit a car with his bat, prompting the other driver to jump out and grab a wooden stick. start fighting back. you're seeing it here.

use the surveillance video near where it happened to try to catch the man holding the bat. good morning. we're following breaking news. 275 closed now in both directions northbound and southbound between the northern apex, the split with 75 and bearss. a fatal crash just before midnight has that stretch of interstate closed, you can see a lot of activity, these are live pictures from our reporter out there on the scene, looks like they are moving but this caused quite a mess out there because the semi truck was carrying thousands of pounds of plastic when it ran into a van that was stalled in the middle of 275, just sitting there in the southbound lanes. what van then burst -- that van then burst into flames and was actually pushed into the northbound lanes. thatties there's so much -- that is why there's so much damage and debris to clean up, not to mention the investigation, since this is a fatal accident.

disabled van was killed in this crash. they are hoping to have the southbound lanes open within the next half-hour to an hour so we're going to keep you posted but right now both directions of 275 blocked between this stretch of road here, your way around it, they are getting cars off at 75, taking them down bruce b downs and you get back on 275 either at bearss or fletcher. if you're heading northbound on 275 you can make that same alternate route in reverse. you can also possibly, depending on where you're coming from and where you're going take a u.s. 41 here through lutz. if you're in the wesley chapel area and you need to get into tampa this morning for work, make sure you leave early and make sure you are following me on twitter and here for the latest. we'll let you know as soon as that opens. elsewhere on the interstates, we're in great shape. no crashes or breakdowns to tell you about. here's the live look at the tampa side of the howard

across all three bridges now. thank goodness the weather is not contributing to additional road problems. temperatures are so much more mild as you're walking out the door than they were yesterday at this time. we have the mid-40s to the north in inverness. brooksville 48. tarp 52. st. pete 57. bradenton 54. sebring 52. lakeland 52. we're also warming up from start-to-finish today. the clouds will increase and the rain chances begin to increase late this evening. after sunset, ahead of our next cold front. but our winds still coming from shifting a little more southerly late in the day. warmth, right? but also some lower-level together is potentially another day where we have a few isolated severe storms. so that is why this area is all shaded in green.

prediction center has put us at a marginal risk which means about a 5% risk, very low for severe weather after 3:00 a.m. so that is wednesday morning. overnight tonight into wednesday morning. stormshield on your mobile device is certainly a great item to have so that you can get those alerts if you happen to be sleeping at that time or as you're on the go throughout the day because the storm chance continues, at least in the first half of the day with the threat of damaging winds, even an isolated tornado. again, we'll continue to fine tune this as we get closer but at this point in time looks like we'll continue to have chances of rain and storms throughout the day wednesday and again on thursday with less of a chance for any severe storms on thursday. looks like that will push to the south, but again expect this will be updated as we get closer. into the weekend a warm-up starts to kick in. behind the front. it looks beautiful for gasparilla from start-to- finish. that is florida's most accurate

back to you. coming up on 5:51. this morning disney is dealing with a federal lawsuit. two former employees filed a class action lawsuit against the entertainment giant saying they were illegally replaced by foreign workers. the two worked at i.t jobs in walt disney world in orlando before being laid off last year. they say they were given 90 days to train their foreign replacements. they were told if they didn't train them they would not receive severance. the lawsuit argues disney and two globally resulting firms illegally replaced them with foreigners on visa allegations. senator nelson filed a bipartisan bill putting a cap on how many visas could be granted. she may not have had a race number but she was in it to win

the unexpected runner with an award-worthy finish at this

take a look at the rivergate tower tampa camera. you can see just how gorgeous it is out there now. nice and clear, no weather related issues to speak of this morning. if you're thinking of making

because our next front approaches and starts affecting our weather beginning overnight tonight. so today with mostly sunny skies, and temperatures in the low 70s at clearwater beach? not bad at all for this time of year. the water temperature at 56. i'll time out that front for you coming up in the 7-day forecast. 5:55. if you live near a trader joe's or whole foods grocery store some good news. economists say homes within a mile of either store are worth twice as much as the national average. and within two years of a trader joe's opening home prices rose 10% more than homes in other neighborhoods. zillo says the increase is because those stores have the ability to make neighborhoods more desirable. a dog in alabama is making headlines after she unknowingly participated in and completed a half-marathon. the dog escaped from her home earlier this month, wound up at the starting line of a half- marathon.

so did she. she kept going the entire 13.1 miles finishing seventh place! her owner, not a runner, didn't even know about her celebrity dog until a friend called and filled her in. the dog got a finisher's medal and went home and took a very 5:56. still ahead -- we're alert. i-275 shut down in both directions, looking at lifer pictures here of a dark and mostly empty road now. we may be getting closer to reopening this stretch of road. again this was fiery, fiery deadly overnight crash between the i-275 apex and bearss. more after this. plus, act of kindness that has

we've got a major traffic alert on 275, the drivers need to know about this. both directions of the interstate shut down now between i-75 and bearss avenue because of a deadly overnight crash. crews working since midnight to get this cleared up. >> of course it's in the stretch, that very long stretch of highway where there are no exits. our live team coverage starts now, janelle martinez has options to help you avoid that area. near the scene to tell us exactly what happened. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. within the last 10 seconds or so we've started to see this traffic flow as southbound 275 is now open from the apex south through bearss avenue. it was shut down overnight due to a deadly fatal accident. let's look at video from last night. here's what fhp told us happened. there was a van that was disabled and stopped in the center lane on southbound i-275

traveling southbound at full