Crash, Near-Crash of Buses Leave a Few Students Hurt

A school bus crash and another bus’s near-collision in San Diego Tuesday morning resulted in several children suffering minor injuries, mostly bumps and bruises, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The buses were similar to the bus involved in last week’s crash that killed 13-year-old Jennifer Loscher of San Marcos.

Authorities said there have been 153 school bus collisions in San Diego County this year, adding that Loscher was the first student killed in a school bus crash in the state in six years.

At about 8:50 a.m. Tuesday, 26 students were riding west on Balboa Avenue toward Holmes Elementary School. The Laidlaw Transit Inc. bus driver, Margarita Carrera, 45, of San Diego, was approaching Interstate 805, when she saw a car exiting the freeway, CHP spokesman Mark Gregg said.

Carrera told the CHP that the car ran the off-ramp stop sign. She said she avoided the car by hitting the brakes hard. The car, which was not hit, fled the scene.

One 11-year-old boy on the bus complained of neck pain and was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center where he was treated and released, Gregg said. Eight other children suffered minor injuries and were treated by paramedics at the scene, Gregg said.

Earlier in the day, a school bus with a single disabled student aboard collided with a car at Fairmount and Orange avenues in San Diego, officials said. Both drivers claim they had a green traffic light before crossing the intersection, Gregg said.

The car was traveling east on Orange and the bus south on Fairmount at about 7 a.m.

The child on the bus, a ninth-grade student of Lewis Junior High School, was wearing a seat belt, and her wheelchair was secured to an interior ramp, officials said. She was released from Mercy Hospital after it was confirmed she had no injuries, hospital spokesman Michael Scahill said.

The San Diego Unified School’s bus driver, Barbara Stearns, 52, of San Marcos, was taken to the Center for Industrialized Medicine, where she was treated for a broken thumb and released, officials said.

The car’s driver, David Ibarra, 65, of San Diego, and his passenger, Raul Costa-Luna, were taken to Mercy Hospital. Ibarra was treated for bruises and released, and Costa-Luna was described in fair condition at the hospital Wednesday night, under observation for possible neck injuries, Scahill said.