14 Children Injured in Bus Crash on Orange Freeway

Fourteen children suffered minor injuries Monday when a school bus taking them to an outing at a skating rink went out of control and slammed into a concrete barrier along the shoulder of the Orange Freeway, authorities said.

The cause of the accident was under investigation, and authorities said there might have been some mechanical problems with the bus, which was carrying summer school students from a Walnut private school.

The accident occurred shortly after noon where the southbound Imperial Highway on-ramp merges with freeway traffic. At that location, the shoulder of the freeway is lined with a 3-foot-high concrete wall to shield construction workers who are widening the freeway.

“My heart just stopped,” said Lance Bickerstaff, 29, a construction worker who was standing along the freeway shoulder about 200 feet from where the bus struck the concrete divider. “I was just hoping they weren’t little kids. Sure enough they were.”

Some of the 40 children on board the bus, ranging in age from 8 to 14, cried and many seemed shocked as they sat against the concrete barriers where they were treated by Fullerton Fire Department paramedics.

The injuries were described as “very minor” by California Highway Patrol Officer K.M. Thornhill, who added that most of the children were transported to three local hospitals merely as a precaution.

The bus, a 1982 Ford, was carrying children from the Christian Chapel School day camp in Walnut to a skating rink in Orange.

Bus driver Ena Mendez, 29, of Pomona was issued a “fix-it citation” after the accident when a Highway Patrol inspector noted a bald tire on the left side. A tire on the right side of the bus was flat, but it was unknown Monday whether that might have been the reason for the vehicle going out of control, CHP spokesman Mel Baker said.

Baker said Mendez has a clean driving record.

“That lady is one excellent driver,” said Joani Thompson, director of student services at the Christian Chapel day camp.

Thompson said that Mendez is employed by the school but declined to comment further on the cause of the accident.

CHP spokesman Baker said the bus was traveling south at about 50 m.p.h. when it swerved first to the left and then back to the right before striking the concrete wall.

Michael Mohler, a 14-year-old from Diamond Bar, said he was sitting in a seat next to the driver when the bus went out of control.

“She was trying to control it and hit the brakes,” causing the bus to skid and slam into the wall before it finally came to a stop, he said.