COSTA MESA : Special Education Student Crashes Bus

An 18-year-old special-education student Friday afternoon took the wheel of a parked school van carrying four passengers and rammed an oncoming car, Costa Mesa police said.

Both drivers sustained minor injuries, but neither was hospitalized, said Costa Mesa Traffic Officer Zack Hoferitza. None of the van’s passengers was injured.

The collision occurred at the 1000 block of Valencia Avenue after the school day had ended at the Marion Parsons Special Education Center and six students were being driven home.

The driver, Mark Becock, was assisting a student off the van about 3:20 p.m. when another jumped into the driver’s seat, turned the key, and drove off.

With the stranded bus driver running alongside, the van traveled about 50 feet west on Valencia Avenue before jerking to the left and into eastbound traffic.

The oncoming car was struck and thrown into a light pole. Its unidentified driver sustained only a bruised forearm.

The student then put the van in reverse just as the bus driver leaped aboard and pulled the parking brake.

The 18-year-old student, who bruised her wrist, told police that she drove the bus “because a friend told her to,” Hoferitza said.

District officials have placed the bus driver on administrative leave pending disciplinary action by the district Board of Education for leaving the key in the bus ignition, said Carol Stocker, a director of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Stocker said the student, who also was not identified, probably would not be punished.