Local News in Brief : Empty School Bus Crashes Into House

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

The bus driver, Cynthia Hankins, 24, of Los Angeles, was slightly injured in the 8:15 a.m. accident in the 18600 block of Victory Boulevard, authorities said. A startled resident wrenched her knee when the bus crashed into her home.

“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,” Linda Ballard said. “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 listed in stable condition. The extent of her injuries were not immediately released. Ballard was not hospitalized after the accident.