A school bus carrying middle school students home from an after school activity mysteriously lost control, jumped a curb and ran into a tree this week, injuring eleven students and the bus driver.
The incident took place in Anaheim, California, and involved an Orange Unified bus carrying students from the El Rancho Charter Middle School. There were eleven students on the bus at the time, as well as the driver, and witnesses report having heard a loud cracking sound immediately before the bus jumped the curb, drove up a hillside and eventually came to a rest after hitting both a tree and a lamp post.
According to California Highway Patrol Officer Florentino Olivera, there are no skid marks on the road in the vicinity of the crash, leading investigators to believe that the 24-year old driver, Gerald Rupple, may not have applied the brakes at the time of the crash. Witnesses indicated that the bus had been travelling fast around a curve before hitting a curb, and that after that it flew into the air before heading down the hill. “It came flying down the hill,” said Andrea Shurtz, “and took trees along the way.”
Shurtz reported that the scene following the crash was chaotic, as children were crying for help and reaching out of the bus windows. “Kids were screaming. Gas was pouring out the back. People just came running from everywhere.”
Injuries were largely a result of being thrown around in the bus, and one student said, “I flew out of my seat and hit the other side of the bus.” Part of one of the trees that was struck entered the bus, resulting in a cut on the leg of one of the students and some of the driver’s injuries. Of the eleven students onboard, two were taken to a nearby trauma center while another five were taken to nearby hospitals. Others had minor injuries. The bus driver was said to have suffered the most critical injuries, and needed to be cut out of the bus before being taken to the hospital.
California has a law that requires that new school buses are equipped with seat belts but does not require their use. According to one of the students, the driver, who has been with the district since 2010, generally walked down the aisle of the bus each day to make sure that the students were belted in, but hadn’t done so the day of the crash.