Bus Hits 20 Cars, Injures 17 People

A runaway bus with apparent brake problems swerved out of control Wednesday for half a mile on a busy street on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, crashing into 20 cars, injuring 17 people and shaking up the usually peaceful coastal community.

In a scene reminiscent of the movie “Speed,” the bus, operated by Laidlaw Transit Services under contract to the city of Los Angeles, raced uncontrollably down Western Avenue in Rancho Palos Verdes near the San Pedro border, jumping the median, crossing into opposing traffic lanes and leaving behind a trail of crushed metal before coming to rest.

“We’re lucky to be alive,” said Robin Hoeven, 43, who had to crawl with his 12-year-old daughter out the back window of their crushed Toyota pickup.

A sheriff’s spokesman said the bus appeared to have experienced a “catastrophic failure of the braking system.”

One witness said that as the 30-foot-long, 39,000-pound bus traveled downhill, its driver screamed, “Get out of the way! Get out of the way!”

“We had to bring in street sweepers to clear the debris. It was so bad,” said Lt. Mike Grimaldi of the Lomita sheriff’s station.

The initial crash into another vehicle came in front of Christ Lutheran Church, where preschoolers were just starting their day. No parents of children at the church school were injured.

“It was like a huge screeching metal sound, like a bomb,” said Linda Warneke, a kindergarten teacher at the church. That was followed by a quick succession of crunching, screeching sounds as one car hit another in a chain reaction, she said.

The bus driver first realized she had lost her brakes at a bus stop half a mile before, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Larry Brogan. After the initial crash, the bus careened down the road, jumped the median, hitting another car and setting off another series of crashes, and then bounced back into the northbound lanes before hitting a curb.

Most of the drivers involved in the crash were believed to be commuters, but at least two were parents driving their children to Dodson Middle School nearby.

“I got hit from behind, hit a beige car, swerved to miss a car, got hit again, and the next thing I knew, I was in the parking lot of Christ Lutheran, and I was facing the street,” said Terry Felando, 48, a San Pedro mother injured in the accident. She was wearing a neck brace Wednesday, and her daughter, Caitlin, 13, who also was in the car, was treated at the hospital for whiplash.

Hoeven, of San Pedro, who was driving his daughter Andrea to Dodson, said he was northbound on Western when a car hit him and spun him around.

He then found himself facing the bus, whose driver, he said, veered out of the way, hitting the truck on the passenger side instead of head-on. Hoeven received three stitches to his forehead, and his daughter hurt her ribs.

Bus driver Emma Beasley, 56, was treated and released from the hospital. She was not cited. She has worked for Laidlaw for 17 years, company officials said. There were no passengers on the 9-year-old bus, which was impounded by the Sheriff’s Department for investigation.

The injured car drivers were taken to five area hospitals, where all but two had been treated and released by late Wednesday afternoon.

Delores Emdee, 59, who was driving a compact car and was one of the first hit, suffered internal injuries and underwent surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance. She was in guarded condition.

A 40-year-old woman who asked that her name not be released was treated at Torrance Medical Center for bruises to her right hip and a possible wrist fracture.

Los Angeles officials said that the bus underwent a regularly scheduled inspection Saturday and that no brake problems were found. James Okazaki, chief of transit services for the L.A. Department of Transportation, said the driver had made two runs earlier in the morning in the same bus without incident.

Robert Yates, head of the department, said the incident was the first major traffic accident in the agency’s 9-year-old bus operation.

The department “continually monitors the maintenance practices of our contractors to ensure that all of our equipment is operating at maximum standards,” he said in a statement.

Irwin Rosenberg, a Laidlaw vice president, said the company is conducting its own investigation. He added that the bus was checked Wednesday, as it is every day before it hits the streets.

A California Highway Patrol spokesman said the Laidlaw yard where the bus is based was last inspected in November and got a “satisfactory” rating. It was not known whether the bus involved in the accident was checked. The CHP examines a sampling of buses during its annual inspections.

Simon is a Times staff writer; Johnson is a Times correspondent. Times correspondent Deborah Belgum also contributed to this report.

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Chain Reaction

How the accident happened:

1. At stop sign at Capitol Drive, bus driver loses brakes and rolls past bus stop.

2. Just before Caddington Drive, bus hits first car, setting off multiple crashes in northbound lanes.

3. Halfway between Caddington and Toscanini Drive, bus jumps center divider into southbound lanes, hits one car, then swerves back over divider into northbound lanes. Another chain reaction is set off in southbound lanes.

4. Halfway between Delasonde Drive and Avenida Aprenda, bus hits a curb and comes to a stop.

Source: L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, Lomita Substation