Local News in Brief : 7 Children Hurt as Car Jumps Curb at Thousand Oaks School

Seven elementary school pupils were injured Thursday, two of them seriously, when a car jumped a curb and plowed into a crowd of children on their way home from school in Thousand Oaks, authorities said.

The car came to rest on top of two students on the sidewalk, but more than a dozen parents and teachers from Ladera Elementary School rushed in to lift the car and free the children, Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Hank Carrillo said.

Witnesses said the driver, Songhee Kwon, 39, of Thousand Oaks, was pulling into a parking space at the school in the 1200 block of Calle Almendro when her car accelerated, Carrillo said.

The driver’s 6-year-old son, Ronald, was among the children injured, Carrillo said.

Ambulances took five of the injured children, including Ronald, to Los Robles Regional Medical Center. The other two children were taken to the hospital by their parents, Carrillo said.

The driver was also hospitalized in deep shock, he said.

Heather Altreche, 9, who was pinned by the car, suffered a broken lower right leg and broken pelvis and was in serious condition after surgery Thursday night, a nursing supervisor said.

Alexander Constaninescu, the other child pulled from under the car, suffered second- and third-degree burns on his left arm, chest, hip and right thigh, Carrillo said. He was transferred in serious condition to the burn unit at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Panorama City, the Los Robles nursing supervisor said.

The other children were released after treatment for lesser injuries, Carrillo said.

Deputies had difficulty getting to the school because of traffic congestion caused when parents and others flocked to the accident, Carrillo said.

Authorities were trying to determine why the car accelerated.