13 Hurt on San Diego Freeway : RTD Bus Dives Down Embankment

An RTD bus carrying 18 passengers collided with a car at the top of an off-ramp of the San Diego Freeway Friday afternoon, slammed into a guardrail and plunged 50 feet down a grassy embankment before coming to rest right side up on the freeway.

Ten people were taken to two hospitals for treatment of minor injuries. Three others were treated at the scene by paramedics.

The accident occurred at 12:30 p.m. on the Rimerton Road overpass to the southbound San Diego Freeway. The bus, which travels Route 560 between Westwood and Van Nuys Boulevard, had a scheduled stop at a park-and-ride station at Rimerton Road, Los Angeles police investigators said.

Witnesses’ Accounts

After exiting at Mulholland Drive, the bus collided with a car at the intersection of the off-ramp and Rimerton Road, Officer Gary Weller said. Witnesses said the car apparently ran a red light, according to Weller.

The bus then continued across the intersection and onto a freeway on-ramp, where it hit the guardrail and plummeted onto the freeway, landing “on all fours,” Weller said. Passers-by helped passengers break windows to escape.

Brian Aguirre, 17, a passenger from San Fernando, said, “There was no time to think; I just tried to hold onto the seat. The passengers were yelling and screaming.”

He added: “The light for us was green, and then it turned yellow.” Referring to the car and the bus, he said, “It looked like both speeded up. Then there was a collision.”

“I hurt my back,” he said at UCLA Medical Center. “There is a lot of pain.”

Aguirre, a Sylmar High School student, said he had been on his way to the beach.

Five Fire Department ambulances and four companies of firefighters were sent to the scene. Of those hospitalized, five were taken to UCLA Medical Center and five to Sherman Oaks Community Hospital.

The bus driver, Dolores Adams, 42, of Sherman Oaks, and the driver of the car, Christine Koontz, 34, of Granada Hills, were not cited by police.