Two Killed as Border Clinic Bus Flips Over

A bus returning 20 handicapped Mexican children and 19 adults to a Calexico clinic from Los Angeles-area hospitals flipped over on its side, killing two of the adults and injuring the other passengers, a dozen seriously, officials reported Tuesday.

Rescue workers converged on the accident scene, 20 miles northwest of here, late Monday night to treat the injured children, some as young as 3 years old and all suffering from a variety of orthopedic illnesses ranging from polio to bone deformities.

The bus was carrying patients of Valley Orthopaedic Clinic of Calexico, their relatives and volunteer workers.

Witnesses and the California Highway Patrol said the driver of the bus, which is owned by the clinic, lost control of the vehicle as he headed south on California 86 near the Salton Sea. The vehicle swerved back and forth before flipping over twice and coming to stop on its side off the road.

Many Remain Hospitalized

Ambulances took the victims to hospitals here and in El Centro, where 14 were admitted with various injuries. Eleven of the victims--all adults--remained hospitalized in Imperial County Tuesday night, officials said. Another victim, Guadalupe Hernandez de Mazon, 36, of Hermosillo, was taken by helicopter to a San Diego hospital, officials said.

The 20 children on board mostly suffered only minor bruises.

The driver, Rafael Ramirez Chavez, 37, of Mexicali, was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter. A California Highway Patrol spokesman in nearby Imperial said that although an investigation is continuing, the cause of the crash appeared to be “driver error.”

Ramirez, who suffered cuts and bruises in the crash, told officers that “he just lost control of the bus,” CHP Capt. Mike Mikita said.

“It pulled hard to the right; he steered hard to the left and lost control of it,” the captain said.

Mikita said an inspection of the bus after the accident found no indication of mechanical malfunction, “so that only leaves the driver.”

The dead were identified as Maria Godoy Ramirez, 85, of Mexicali, an eye patient at the clinic, and Norma Duran, 31, of Mexicali who had escorted her 12-year-old daughter, Margarita Aguirre, a burn victim, to Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children in Los Angeles for plastic surgery.

Some of the adults on the bus were parents and others relatives taking care of the children, said clinic program director Anna Maria Deanda.

Deanda and clinic director Wayne Van de Graaff explained that the nonprofit Valley Orthopaedic Clinic, located on the Mexican border, treats juvenile orthopedic patients and heart, eye and plastic surgery adult patients who come to the volunteer-staffed facility from all over northern Mexico.

Clinic buses make the Los Angeles trip several times a week, shuttling patients to and from Orthopaedic Hospital, Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children and other Los Angeles-area hospitals where they receive free care.

An initial check of CHP inspection records showed that the Calexico clinic’s three buses and four drivers had a satisfactory record over the last four years with no major maintenance or driving violations, said Ed Koss, supervisor of the CHP’s motor carrier safety unit in San Diego.

Highway Patrol investigators said the accident occurred on a dry road in clear weather. There was no indication of drug or alcohol use by the driver, Mikita said. The bus was going about 50 m.p.h. in a 55 m.p.h. zone, he said.

Some of the passengers confirmed the bus was not speeding.

Gloria Palacios, 34, of Tecate, who suffered a broken collarbone, said she and her daughter, Saida, 4, were returning from a week at Orthopaedic Hospital where the girl had been operated on for arm problems.

‘Side to Side’

“I was asleep,” she said, “and I woke up when the bus started to go from side to side.”

She said that after the bus flipped over and came to a halt on its side, the driver, aided by other motorists, helped carry the children from the wreckage.

Luis Alberto Mazon, 16, who had been accompanied by his mother during a 13-day stay at Orthopaedic Hospital for treatment and therapy for crippling birth defects, suffered a bruised eye.

“When the bus went off the road, it rolled over twice and everybody was screaming and crying,” he said.

Mikita said the first rescue personnel to arrive found the 20 children “in various stages of emotional distress, but they all seemed to calm down rather rapidly.”

Mother in Shock

Van de Graaff told of coming upon one mother, still in shock from the crash and worried about her young daughter who had just been operated on at Orthopaedic Hospital and had walked there for the first time.

“She was crying that her daughter had broken the leg the doctors just fixed,” he said.

Doctors later reassured the mother that the leg was not seriously injured and that the girl would be able to walk again.

“It was a miracle that none of the kids were seriously injured,” he said.

H. G. Reza reported from Imperial County and Michael Seiler from Los Angeles.