School bus collision hurts 26 Lennox Middle School students
One bus rear-ended another on the San Diego Freeway on the way to the La Brea Tar Pits. Some students have minor injuries.
Twenty-six middle school students, all with minor injuries, were sent to hospitals this morning after a school bus collision on the northbound San Diego Freeway. Dozens of paramedics responded to the scene to treat the children, many of whom were distraught and crying, authorities said.
The two charter buses were taking about 124 students and 14 adults from Lennox Middle School to the La Brea Tar Pits when one rear-ended the other about 9:40 a.m. The buses were traveling in a freeway construction zone near Palms Boulevard, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Chris Burch.
Among the injured was Vanessa Gonzalez, 13, who was knocked several feet from her seat when "the bus stopped super hard," she said. "I hurt my hip and back; I was in a lot of pain."
Vanessa's sister Kimberly, 11, watched as the bus driver grabbed his steering wheel, screamed "Man!" and lowered his head in a defensive posture before the bus slammed into the other.
Kimberly said she hurtled forward, into the back of the seat in front of her. Then she heard a friend make a cellphone call. "I heard her say, 'Mom, will you let me go to more field trips if you don't get mad at what I'm about to tell you? We've been in an accident.' "
The buses were driven off the freeway and into a nearby Ross Dress for Less parking lot at the corner of National and Sepulveda boulevards, where about 50 paramedics and firefighters and 11 ambulances converged to treat the injured and move them to emergency rooms, authorities said.
CHP officials said that 18 injured students, some of them crying, were taken to hospitals in ambulances. Private vehicles took the rest.
None of the field trip's 14 adult chaperons were injured, authorities said.
The cause of the accident is under investigation by the CHP. The names of the bus drivers, who were not injured, were not released. The buses were operated by Durham School Services, and company officials could not be reached for comment.
The yellow school buses were traveling at about 20 mph when one of them stopped suddenly, triggering the rear-end collision, Burch said.
"The students who were not complaining of injuries walked off the bus and waited in the parking lot," said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Robby Cordobes.
Several students who complained of neck and back injuries were placed in protective neck collars by paramedics and secured to body boards for transport to local hospitals, Cordobes said.
