Garden Grove : Charges Sought Against Driver Who Hit Van

The California Highway Patrol will seek charges against the driver of a car that plowed into a school van for failing to stop at a red light.

CHP spokeswoman Leslie Lazo said the agency will ask that Jung Sook Park, 30, of Norwalk be charged with failing to stop at a red light and not using seat belts.

CHP mechanics found no mechanical failure of the brakes or tail lights in Park’s 1988 Oldsmobile. Witnesses told investigators that they did not see Park’s brake lights go on before she hit the school van and that she was traveling up to 40 m.p.h., Lazo said.

Park had told investigators that her brakes had failed when she tried to stop after seeing the van but that she could not remember the color of the traffic light after she was leaving Garden Grove Freeway on Monday afternoon, Lazo said.

Park crashed into the side of the school bus after leaving the off-ramp on Magnolia Street. The van, which was carrying a teacher and eight children, overturned on impact and rammed into a truck.

Park and her two children, Angie, 5, and Anni, 4, were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where they were admitted. Park’s children were released Tuesday, and she was listed in good condition Thursday with head cuts.

All but one child from the school van were treated at Humana Hospital-Westminster and Garden Grove Medical Center and released. The most seriously hurt, Russell Lewis, 7, is in good condition at Humana Hospital after suffering a severe cut and fractures in his right arm.