Girl, 15, Hit and Killed on Way to School : Accident: The van driver who struck her apparently failed to see the Huntington Beach High student, who had run into traffic to catch a second bus.

A 15-year-old high school student was struck and killed Friday as she ran into traffic to catch a bus, authorities said.

Angela Louise White of Los Alamitos was on her way to Huntington Beach High School at 6:54 a.m. when she was hit, Sheriff’s Lt. Jay Mendez said.

White had gotten off a bus at the southeast corner of Beach Boulevard and Katella Avenue and was trying to cross Beach against a red light to reach the southwest corner to catch a second bus, Mendez said.

As she crossed, witnesses told police, she tried to wave traffic to slow down. Several cars did slow down, but a van driver apparently did not see her. The van knocked her about 200 feet.

She was pronounced dead at the hospital. The van driver was not cited or injured.

At Huntington Beach High School, where classes begin at 8:34 a.m., officials said they decided against announcing the death of White, a sophomore. Friday was the last day before the school’s holiday break.

“We are surmising they will not be learning about it until they have left school,” said Mary Scott, assistant principal. “We leave it up to the family to make the announcement. . . . We want to respect the family’s wishes.”

Scott said that school psychologists would be available after the break to counsel any students upset about White’s death. In such cases, she said, staff and teachers are careful to watch for students who appear distraught.

Because White did not live in the Huntington Beach school district, she would have needed a permit to attend the high school, Scott said.

White’s death was the most recent in a series of traffic accidents that have killed or injured at least seven Orange County students on the way to or from school this year:

* On Jan. 11, Marcia White, 11, escaped serious injury while riding home from school on her bicycle. She was thrown onto the hood of a car slowing for a stop sign and her helmet shattered the car’s windshield.

* On April 22, Thomas E. Lanni, 7, was fatally injured by a pickup truck in Laguna Niguel after getting off a school bus.

* On May 11, 12-year-old Josepha and 11-year-old Roberta Miranda were injured in Santa Ana when a car lost control and swerved onto the sidewalk while the sisters were waiting to cross the street on their way to school.

* On July 26, Christopher Schneider, 12, was killed in Seal Beach when a car swerved and jumped the curb where he was waiting to cross the street to his elementary school.

* On Nov. 1, Jonathan Nicasio, 6, was fatally injured in Orange while crossing the street with his mother. On the same day the second-grader was hit, 11-year-old Michelle Buck was injured by a car on her way to school in Irvine. Both victims were in the crosswalks within a block of their schools when they were hit, police said.