School Bus Hit on Freeway by Truck; 23 Hurt

A tractor-trailer rig struck a school bus on the Santa Ana Freeway on Monday afternoon, touching off a chain-reaction that included another school bus and two passenger vehicles but causing only minor injuries, authorities said.

Twenty high school students returning home from school in the San Fernando Valley and three drivers of the involved vehicles were taken to hospitals for treatment after they complained of various injuries, authorities said.

The driver of the first bus, Connie Huston, 48, was treated for cuts on her hands suffered when the bus windshield shattered and folded back onto the steering wheel, California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Weddle said.

The others had X-rays and underwent general examinations, said Dr. David Wagner, a physician in the emergency room of County-USC Medical Center, where nine of the injured were taken.

“Some of the students were a little dazed and a little upset. It caught them by surprise,” Wagner said. “But they are handling it pretty well.”

Cause of the 4:30 p.m. accident on the southbound Santa Ana Freeway near Brooklyn Avenue was under investigation,

“There is some indication that there was inattentive driving on the part of the operator of the tractor-trailer,” Weddle said. “Apparently he had diverted his attention momentarily and when he turned back forward, he saw that the bus stopped. He tried to brake but there wasn’t enough room.”

Weddle said the truck driver, Thomas Dalton, 62, of Los Alamos, told officers he was traveling about 40 m.p.h. when he saw that traffic in front of him had come to a stop. At the time of impact with the first bus, Dalton’s rig was going at least 30 m.p.h., Weddle said.

“It pushed in the back bumper of the first bus five feet,” he said.

Traffic on the freeway was backed up for about two miles, the CHP said.

The buses had picked up students from Taft High School in Woodland Hills and were bound for drop-off points near Ascot and Hooper elementary schools in South Los Angeles.