Seat Belts Save 2 Students

Two special education students, both wearing seat belts, escaped serious injury Monday after the school bus in which they were riding went through a red light, was hit by a car in a busy intersection and flipped over before striking a tree, authorities said.

“One witness said they could see the kids hanging upside down,” said California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Angel Johnson. “We were extremely lucky that they had their seat belts on or we could have had some serious injuries.”

One student, Sara Stice, 16, suffered minor cuts. Bus driver Ronnie Thomas Reay, 44, suffered two broken ribs, and the driver of the car, Laura Lisa Villalobos, 22, suffered a bump on the head in the collision. All were treated at Irvine Medical Center and released.

The student’s father, Bob Stice, rushed to the hospital after the accident and had an emotional reunion with his daughter.

“Her lip was quivering a bit when I first saw her, but I could see that she was fine,” Stice said outside the hospital. “For her having been upside down and to have to go through a thing like that, it’s a blessing that she’s all right. I thank God for watching over her.”

The other student on the bus was not injured and went home with his parents, school district officials said.

“We are very grateful everyone is safe and healthy,” said Dennis Smith, district superintendent, “but we’re concerned about any incidents regarding students and transporting them. Our safety record has been outstanding, so it’s quite unusual for us to have an incident like this occur.”

The accident is the second involving an Orange County school bus within the last six days. Last Tuesday, a motorist ran a red light and hit a bus in Laguna Hills carrying eight Del Cerro Elementary School students. None were injured.

In Monday’s accident, Reay was southbound on Yale Avenue at 7:05 a.m. on his way to University High School. The bus, traveling at 40 mph, entered the Trabuco Road intersection where the light had just changed, according to the CHP.

“When the light turned red, the school bus didn’t stop,” Johnson said.

The bus was struck by a car driven by Villalobos, who was eastbound on Trabuco Road.

It is the first crash more serious than a fender-bender involving an Irvine Unified School District bus in about five years, district officials said.

Betty Manwill, the district’s transportation supervisor, said the bus driver told her that the light was still green when he entered the intersection, a version that is at odds with CHP accounts.

“When he approached the intersection, he still had the green light,” Manwill said. “As he entered it, it turned yellow and in less than three seconds, it turned red. He couldn’t stop because he would have stopped in the middle of an intersection.”

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Johnson acknowledged the officer investigating the accident was concerned about how quickly the light switched from yellow to red--in about four seconds. But she said the bus driver went through a red light.

“Yellow does not mean speed up,” Johnson said. “It means prepare to stop.”

Stice said he will be looking forward to a full report on how the accident occurred.

“I’d like to talk to the bus driver before I make any kind of judgment. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

The father drove by the accident scene on his way to the hospital and said the wreckage made him extremely anxious, even though he already knew his daughter wasn’t seriously hurt.

His daughter said the accident frightened her, but she was all smiles after she was reunited with her father at the hospital.

“The bus just flipped over, but I’m OK,” Sara Stice said as she hugged her father outside the emergency room. “I hurt my knee and my leg and my stomach, but I’m OK.”

The bus driver’s record is clean, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. DMV officials said, however, that Reay had been driving with an invalid driver’s license, which expired Dec. 26, 1995. He was immediately issued an extension but did not submit a current medical exam, making the license invalid as of Jan. 6, 1996, said Jessica Gonzalez, a DMV technician.

“He is not qualified to be driving that bus right now,” Gonzalez said.

Manwill, however, disputed the DMV account and said the driver’s medical certificate was faxed to the state department Jan. 4.

“It’s a big paperwork snafus,” Manwill said. “I have all of the verification that everything was sent. He’s absolutely legal to drive.”

Reay will be on medical leave and will not drive a bus again until the investigation into the accident is complete, district officials said.

“He’s very upset,” Manwill said. “He’s been a school bus driver for our district for five years, and there have been no problems.”

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The 22-seat bus, smaller than most school buses in the district, is required to have seat belts because of its size. Larger school buses are not equipped with seat belts, Manwill said.

“A larger bus would not have flipped over the way this one did,” she said. “The smaller buses are more like a car.”

Bob Stice said he personally straps his daughter into her seat each morning when he puts her on the school bus. He said he intends to have her continue riding the bus, despite Monday’s crash.

“I’m probably going to put her back on the bus tomorrow,” he said. “But I just might take the ride with her, at least for the first day.”