Bus Hits House; No Children Aboard

A school bus with no students on board careened out of control on a rain-slicked street this morning and crashed into the front door of a house in Reseda, officials said.

The bus driver, Cynthia Hankins, 24, of Los Angeles, was injured slightly, and a startled resident who watched the bus crash into her home wrenched her knee during the 8:15 a.m. accident in the 18600 block of Victory Boulevard.

“I was sitting on the couch by the window and I saw this bus make a 90-degree swing and start coming toward our house,” said Linda Ballard. “I kept thinking it was going to stop. But not even the house stopped it. I jumped up at the last second, and I guess I wrenched my knee.”

The bus crashed through the front porch, shattered front windows and knocked down the door of the house. Ballard’s mother, Ruby Cartwright, was in a rear bedroom when she heard the crash. “I was asleep and I thought it was an earthquake,” she said. “I came out and saw a school bus had kind of slid right in my front door.”

Hankins was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where she was in stable condition. The extent of her injuries was not disclosed.