28 Hurt When Bus Crashes on Off-Ramp

Nearly 30 people were injured Saturday when an MTA bus, possibly crippled by brake failure, lost control on a curving freeway offramp in Sherman Oaks and slammed into a car before hitting a guardrail and crashing to a halt against a palm tree.

Fifty-four passengers were on the standing-room-only bus when the accident occurred about 5 p.m. on the Ventura Boulevard offramp of the northbound San Diego Freeway, authorities said. After evaluation by paramedics, 28 people requested transport to a hospital for treatment of injuries that ranged from minor to moderate.

It was unclear whether any Getty Center visitors were aboard the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus on a line that runs from Westwood to Sylmar and is one of the primary means of public transit to the newly opened museum.

“Amazingly, there was no one trapped and no serious injuries,” said Brian Humphrey, Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman.

Witnesses reported that the driver failed to negotiate a tight turn near the end of the exit, sending the bus into the guardrail and onto the area between the onramp and offramp. The vehicle crushed the side of one car, which then struck two others, the California Highway Patrol said.

Investigators were looking into reports that the brakes on the bus may have failed, though no cause has been determined, said CHP Officer Karen Faciane. Some passengers said the driver, 25-year-old Dominique Mix-Lawton, was frantically pumping the brakes before slamming into the tree. Mix-Lawton was hospitalized in stable condition, officials said.

Authorities said they do not suspect that alcohol or drugs were involved. An investigation is continuing.

Although some passengers said the driver was going too fast, officials at the scene praised her for taking evasive action.

“She had a split-second decision to make: either plow into the cars in front of her” waiting for a light at the end of the ramp and passing on the cross street “or hit the guardrail,” said Michelle Caldwell, an MTA deputy executive officer. “She made the right choice.”

Passengers described a chaotic scene as the vehicle went out of control, with passengers screaming and grasping for handholds. Some handrails broke off and many riders ended up on the floor, witnesses said.

“When [the driver] started to hit the brakes, you could hear her pump them,” said passenger J.R. Ainsworth, 23, of North Hollywood.

A few riders said they smelled burning rubber while on the freeway. Nely Elazo, 30, and Damallie Mawanda, 41, were talking about the smell just before the crash and briefly debated whether to tell the driver. But it was too difficult to make their way from the back of the crowded bus to the front, they said.

MTA officials are under a federal consent order to allow no more than 15 people to be standing on a bus at one time. MTA spokesman Gary Wosk said the bus had 11 passengers standing when the crash occurred.

CHP officials recently rated two of the MTA’s bus yards “unsatisfactory” after finding problems with buses during safety inspections. Thirteen of 40 buses checked were ordered off the roads in October and November inspections at bus terminals in downtown and South-Central Los Angeles, according to CHP reports. Among the problems inspectors found were defective brakes.

Nonetheless, MTA officials said the bus involved in Saturday’s accident did not originate from either of those yards. They also said they immediately moved to fix such problems.