CORONA DEL MAR : Bicyclist Loses Foot After Bus Collision

A school bus full of elementary school students collided with a 30-year-old bicyclist Friday morning on East Coast Highway, injuring the cyclist and causing a traffic backup to Laguna Beach.

No students were injured.

The bicyclist apparently was riding on the sidewalk along East Coast Highway and crossed Poinsettia Avenue just as the bus made a right turn onto the residential street, California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Livingston said.

The cyclist, Patricia K. Ketchmark of Newport Beach, was taken to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, where her left foot was amputated, Livingston said. The wheels of the woman’s 12-speed bicycle were crumpled by the impact.

The CHP was still trying to determine the exact cause of the 8:10 a.m. accident, Livingston said late Friday afternoon. But it appears that the bus driver was not at fault, he said. The driver has a clean record with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, said district transportation director Rita Finen.

While none of the students were injured in the collision, “the kids were pretty shook up,” Finen said.

A district psychologist talked to the children, and all of them appeared to be handling the incident well, said Paul Twedt, principal at Harbor View Elementary School. Parents were notified of the accident, and about six came to the school to take their children home for the rest of the day, he said.

To help ease the students’ trauma, a Newport Beach police officer remained on the bus and talked to the students while the woman was being treated by paramedics, Sgt. Andy Gonis said. And while the students were being transferred to a new bus, officers formed a human barricade to shield the youngsters from seeing the mangled bicycle and blood on the pavement, he said.