Bus Ferrying O.C. Teens Plunges

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 teens 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 of the 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 the sixth-grade teacher at a San Juan Capistrano Episcopal school.

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

“He was looking at it while he was driving,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Jeff Brown, who interviewed the driver shortly 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 eastbound about 30 miles per hour 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,” said CHP Officer Craig Rentle. “It could have rolled a long ways. They are lucky.”

Shortly after the incident, Riverside County fire officials reported that the bus had become fully 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 teens from the Laguna Niguel church 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 Highway 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 the map book, authorities added.

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

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

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.

Last 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 of the girls, two adult passengers and the bus driver. That accident left 47 passengers injured.

Arriving parents Friday night were directed to Palm Desert City Hall. Among those pacing nervously was Bob Ferro of Laguna Niguel, a marketing executive for the Jesus Film Project. With him were his parents and his son Jaime, waiting to hear if Ferro’s other son, Jodi, 12, had been aboard the ill-fated bus.

“They were reading a long list of the names of those not injured,” Ferro said. The reading “seemed to take forever.”

Jodi’s name, he said, “was the very last one on the list.”

Kathy Esser of San Juan Capistrano said her daughter Amy, 13, an eighth-grader, was injured in the crash.

“We’re told she is doing pretty good,” she said. “A nurse told my husband she may have a broken arm. She’s in shock and pretty upset. They airlifted her to the hospital. “

She said Amy had gone on this retreat two or three times previously.

“This is her big thing,” Amy’s mother said.

John Gash of Laguna Niguel, who also was leaving with his wife to pick up their injured daughter, Autumn, 13, said officials told them she may have a broken shoulder.

“She loves these trips, and she’s going to be back on the bus for another in a few weeks,” he said.

The 6-year-old Coast Hills Community Church has a congregation of about 1,200 people who hold services at Dana Hills High School in Dana Point while they build a church, officials said.

Church officials manned phones at their office in a commercial complex in Laguna Niguel as worried parents called. They later said that all but one person, 22-year-old Tracy Rodarmel, had been released from hospitals.

Dave Smith, an elder from Mission Viejo, said his daughter, Emily, 12, was on the bus that crashed. Smith said he was driving home from work when he heard the report on the radio.

“There is a moment when your breath catches in your throat. I just prayed and asked that they be safe. I asked that the Lord would protect them, and I guess he did.”

He said that when he and Emily talked on the phone later, she told him, “ ‘Hi, Dad, I’m doing fine. We had a little accident.’ ” Then she asked if she could go on to camp.

Said Smith, “We will have a lot to celebrate at church on Sunday.”

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Paul Feldman in Los Angeles and Leslie Berkman, Donnette Dunbar and Gebe Martinez in Orange County.