Driver Says He Warned of Problems With Bus

The driver of a bus that flipped onto a freeway embankment with 42 students aboard said Tuesday that the bus had repeated engine problems that he reported 14 times since Christmas, but that none were fixed by the bus’s owner, Laidlaw Transit Inc.

“Every day since school started after Christmas break, I reported that bus,” he said. “Nothing ever happened.”

Manuel Arevalo, 23, who was driving the bus that tumbled upside down Monday afternoon and injured 30 students from Standley Junior High School, told The Times from his Southeast San Diego home that the bus had frequent drops in engine power and oil pressure when it hit speeds between 40 m.p.h. and 45 m.p.h.

Arevalo said Laidlaw and the California Highway Patrol both should have copies of his reports that detailed the problems.

Laidlaw spokeswoman Carla Bruno said the bus did have the type of engine problems Arevalo described, but all were fixed and the bus passed two CHP inspections, one in November and the other on Dec. 21.

Arevalo said one inspector wrote him that the bus was fine on Nov. 16. He said that every school day after Christmas, however, the problems continued.

“Look, I wrote up the problem,” he said. “If the mechanic doesn’t want to do anything about it, it’s not my fault.”

Even if the power is cut off, as Arevalo asserts, the driver is nevertheless at fault, Sgt. Clayton Carter of the CHP said.

“If you lose power, the brakes still work,” he said. “The fact is, he still panicked. You find a hill and turn your engine off, and you can still use your brakes. What he did was driver error. But there’s no Vehicle Code section to cite people for panicking, inexperience or losing it in the heat of the moment.”

Although a CHP inspection team is still looking over the bus, Carter said it is most likely that Arevalo will be found at fault. He said the team probably won’t release its findings for another week or two.

In an interview Tuesday, Arevalo described the events that took place when he left the University City school shortly after 2 p.m.

Arevalo said he had a premonition that he shouldn’t report for work Monday but didn’t call in sick because he doesn’t have a telephone.

After classes let out Monday, Arevalo said, students filed onto his bus, including five girls who aren’t assigned to his bus. Arevalo said he was annoyed but had to allow the girls onto the bus because a school monitor authorized it.

As he started to leave the parking lot, Arevalo saw in the rear-view mirror that too many girls were crowding the seat in the back. He stopped the bus, turned around and uttered an obscenity: “I don’t need this . . . on a Monday.”

After the girls returned to their seats, Arevalo said, he had trouble restarting the bus again in the parking lot.

He said he took a different route than normal. Rather than take Genesee Avenue north to Governor Drive and east to Interstate 805, Arevalo said, he was running late and headed south on Genesee intending to take California 52 east as a shortcut.

When he turned onto Genesee, the bus lost power, Arevalo said. He said he pressed the brake once but decided against riding the brakes because he feared they would lock and force the bus to skid.

He said he tried to pull the bus over to the right and take the California 52 ramp west rather than traveling straight and risk hitting cars in front of him.

Picking up speed, Arevalo said, he looked into the side-view mirror as he eased into the far right lane, then suddenly hit the curb.

The bus skidded and flipped, as hysterical children gathered into several piles. Thirty were taken to the hospital.

School nurse Leslie Ochs said five students were still hospitalized Tuesday. Two had slight spinal fractures, one had surgery on her jaw, one had an arm and wrist fracture, and a fifth had reconstructive surgery on his hand and wrist.

Of the 42 on the bus, only two showed up for school Tuesday, she said. Counselors talked to the teen-agers and other frightened students at the school as administrators made another round of calls to parents of students who stayed home.

On Monday night, hours after the accident, Arevalo said he couldn’t sleep.

Again and again, he relived the moment when the bus flipped.

“I feel bad for the kids,” he said. “But here all these parents are saying all these things about me, and they don’t even know what I went through. It’s nothing anyone can explain. You have to react the best you can.”