31 Hurt When Bus Carrying Teen-Agers Plunges Off Road : Accident: Vehicle carrying church group on weekend retreat tips over on mountain highway. ‘It was pandemonium,’ said one chaperon.

A charter bus carrying a group of teen-age girls from Orange County to a “Wild Winter Weekend” church retreat near Idyllwild ran off the side of a winding mountain highway 12 miles southwest of here Friday, leaving 31 injured.

Authorities said 26 teen-agers and four chaperons from Coast Hills Community Church in Laguna Niguel suffered minor to moderate injuries when the bus tipped over on its right side and slid down a hill after veering off California 74 between Palm Desert and Pinyon Pines. Also suffering minor injuries in the accident, which occurred about 4 p.m., was bus driver James A. Miller III, 35, of Wilmington. Six passengers, including chaperon Jeannine Cordova, 22, were transported by helicopters to three Coachella Valley hospitals.

“It was pandemonium,” said Cordova, a Laguna Beach resident who suffered a broken collarbone. “People were flying around. Seats were coming up. Windows were breaking.

“It’s just God’s grace we’re alive,” added Cordova, a sixth-grade teacher at a San Juan Capistrano Episcopal school.

Authorities said the accident occurred when Miller realized he was lost and turned to look at his map book.

“He was looking at it while he was driving,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Jeff Brown, who interviewed the driver after the crash. “The right wheels slid onto the dirt shoulder and when he realized it, he tried to turn back onto the pavement.

“But he didn’t have the traction and the bus slid down the hill,” Brown said.

The officer said Miller told authorities he was traveling east at about 30 m.p.h. on a slight downgrade when the bus left the roadway. It came to a rest on a pile of boulders about 50 feet below the road.

“If it had flipped all the way over this would have been much worse,” CHP Officer Craig Rentle said. “It could have rolled a long ways. They are lucky.”

Shortly after the incident, Riverside County fire officials reported that the bus was engulfed in flames. But CHP officers and other witnesses said there was only a small fire, which went out on its own.

The harrowing accident occurred at the tail end of a fun-filled ride from Orange County to the Pathfinder Ranch, south of Idyllwild. On board were a group of junior high school girls, ages 12 to 14, who were headed to the mountains for a weekend retreat.

Authorities said there were seat belts on the bus--one of three carrying teen-age church members to the ranch--but witnesses said the youngsters were not wearing them.

Miller, who was driving the rear bus, apparently took a wrong turn off California 371, a twisting mountain route up the San Jacinto Mountains from Anza, CHP officers said. After driving about 10 miles in the wrong direction, Miller realized he had lost his way and turned to look at the map book, authorities said.

The next moments were pure terror, according to Cordova.

As the bus slid off the roadway, “the seat cushions were flying all over the place,” she said. “We ended up on the side of the bus, on the (ceiling), on top of each other.”

At that point, Cordova said, the bus began to smoke.

“We were all crying and just in shock,” she said. “The kids were scared it was going to catch fire.”

However, with the help of the driver and several passing motorists, the children quickly climbed out of the bus and scrambled to the roadway. Within minutes, 20 firefighters, two ground ambulances and two air ambulances were at the scene, fire officials said.

“Everything was happening fast--but it seemed slow at the same time,” Cordova said.

CHP officers planned to pull the bus--an International Harvester 30-footer rented from a Ryder agency--back onto the Pines to Palms Highway and impound it for examination of possible mechanical problems. Miller, they said, was not immediately cited.

The accident was the second involving youngsters in the Palm Springs area in recent months.

In July, a charter bus carrying a group of Girl Scouts from across the nation crashed on the road leading to the base of the Palm Springs Tramway, killing four girls, two adult passengers and the bus driver. That accident left 47 passengers injured.

Times staff writer Paul Feldman contributed to this story in Los Angeles.