Local News in Brief : Dana Point : 2-Year-Old Boy Injured in Freak Van Accident

A 2-year-old San Juan Capistrano boy was seriously injured by a van driven by his baby-sitter in Dana Point on Saturday, California Highway Patrol officers said.

Ian Schiffer was listed in “satisfactory-to-good” condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo on Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Schiffer was hit after he left the van to follow his siblings, who were being led across the street by a friend of the baby-sitter, the CHP said.

The accident occurred shortly after noon Saturday on Street of the Park Lantern, CHP Officer Tom Sollie said. The van, driven by Camille Baker, 19, of San Juan Capistrano, was heading north away from Doheny State Beach when it stopped to discharge Baker’s friend and the siblings, he said.

Sollie said he did not know where the baby-sitter’s friend was taking the other two children, who are 5 and 7.

Before leaving, the friend told Ian to stay in the van, Sollie said, but Ian instead got out and ran around in front of the van, he said.

Baker, not knowing that the child was in front of her van, moved forward, running over him, Sollie said.

Baker would have continued forward if another driver heading the opposite way on the Street of the Park Lantern hadn’t shouted for her to stop, Sollie said. That driver, Kenneth Olsen, 33, of Dana Point, then got out of his own car, ran to Ian and gently removed the toddler from underneath the van.

“The guy was definitely a hero, definitely a good guy,” Sollie said.

Sollie said the child’s parents are visiting New York and had left the child with the baby-sitter.