San Diego

A 6-year-old student suffered only minor cuts and bruises Wednesday despite being dragged beneath a school bus for about 50 feet, the California Highway Patrol said.

“It was a minor accident but it could have been really tragic,” said Fred Miller, a CHP spokesman.

The CHP said the child’s mother, Kheang Kea, stopped her pickup truck in a no-parking zone on Fern Street opposite Brooklyn Elementary School to let her daughter off about 7:45 a.m.

The child, Kean Vorn, got out of the truck and darted in front of a 35-foot-long school bus, which was headed north within the 25 m.p.h speed limit.

“The child went under the front axle,” Miller said. “The child kept rolling and tumbling underneath the bus for a short distance. It’s fortunate she didn’t get pinned under the tire.”

The bus driver told CHP officers that she knew she had struck the child and came to a skidding halt about 50 feet from the initial contact.

Kean was taken to Children’s Hospital, where she was reported in fair condition with cuts and bruises to the forehead, chest and arms, hospital spokeswoman Terry Merryman said. She was being held overnight for observation. The bus driver went into shock about an hour after the accident and was taken to San Diego Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Miller said the CHP would recommend a citation against Kea, 27, for parking in a no-parking zone. Kea allegedly had parked between two no-parking signs, and investigators said there is a loading zone nearby.

“The reason for those things there is to prevent exactly what happened,” Miller said. “This was a good case of a parent who showed a lack of responsibility.”

Five students riding in the bus were not injured, investigators said.