Car Crash Spurs Push at School for Safe Driving : Accident: Three Capistrano Valley students remain hospitalized after five-vehicle collision in which 10 were injured.

Calls and cards flooded local hospitals Wednesday for three students from Capistrano Valley High School seriously injured in a five-car crash.

And on campus, staff and student leaders spread a message of safety through the hallways. Student body President Ryan Hawkins, a senior, took to the public address system during third period Wednesday morning to stress the importance of using seat belts and obeying speed limits.

“People try to hurry to get to school and sort of drive recklessly,” Hawkins said Wednesday afternoon. “I just encouraged people to wear their seat belts and drive safely to school and everything. I made a comment about leaving a little earlier to school instead of trying to speed.”

Principal Jessica Gorman distributed a memo to all staff containing information about the accident and collected signatures on a giant get-well card in her office for the victims. Hawkins and other students started organizing a safe-driving campaign on campus.

“Kids at school are rallying,” Gorman said. “From (our) point of view, the faculty and staff are definitely concerned about our kids’ safety on the way to school, and the way home, and on weekends. Safety and welfare of the kids is the first thing we think about.”

Police are still investigating the five-car accident, in which 10 people were injured Tuesday morning at Marguerite Parkway and Estanciero. But they believe that in a carful of six Capistrano Valley students, only driver Kenneth Wong was wearing a seat belt, said Orange County Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Lisanti. Three of the victims were hospitalized.

State Department of Motor Vehicles records show that Wong first received his driver’s license in February and had no speeding tickets or accidents before Tuesday.

Witnesses told police Wong was weaving through traffic at 70 m.p.h. when his 1991 Toyota sedan sideswiped another car, careened through an intersection, struck two other vehicles, then flipped and landed on its roof.

Wong, 18, remained in serious condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center Wednesday, with two bones broken in his left leg, one bone broken in his left arm, and a concussion, according to hospital spokeswoman Wendy Harle.

But the status of two other accident victims had improved slightly Wednesday.

Sroothi Jaikumar, 14, underwent emergency surgery Tuesday night after doctors discovered that she had two broken ribs, and was in serious condition in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center. Linda Chang, 15, who sustained head injuries in the crash, was transferred out of intensive care and was in fair condition Wednesday afternoon, said Children’s Hospital spokeswoman Andrea Pronk.

Two other crash victims who were not hospitalized, first cousins Jade Gjestland, 14, and Kristin Kaewmanee, 16, declined to discuss the accident Tuesday. Tuey Gjestland, Jade’s mother, said the girls spent most of the day napping as they nursed their injuries at home in Mission Viejo.

Wong had been driving the girls to school daily for about two weeks, Tuey Gjestland said.

“I don’t want to talk to (them about the accident) now until (they’re) feeling better,” she said. “I just don’t believe what’s happening. I think there are circumstances I still don’t know. I want to find out more before I draw a conclusion on what happened.”

The sixth student in Wong’s car, Lewis Chow, 16, could not be reached for comment.