9 Injured as Car, School Bus Crash on Freeway

A car collided Friday morning with a school bus carrying 17 students to Pacoima Middle School, causing minor injuries to two people in the car and the driver and six students in the bus.

The collision occurred at 6:50 a.m. on the Santa Monica Freeway at the Golden State Freeway interchange when the unidentified 30-year-old male driver of a Chevy Beretta abruptly changed lanes and rear-ended the bus, according to Officer Wendy Moore of the California Highway Patrol’s Southern Division.

Moore said the car was traveling east at a high rate of speed in the far left lane and struck the back of the bus in the next lane.

The vehicles became entangled, skidded back into the fast lane and then slammed into the center divider, Moore said. The car came to rest lodged under the bus. The vehicles blocked the left lane of the transition for more than two hours.

The driver of the car and his 20-year-old female passenger, who suffered minor injuries, were taken by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics to County/USC Medical Center, said Bob Collis, a Fire Department spokesman.

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All 17 children aboard the bus were students in the school’s theater arts and computer science magnet programs, school officials said.

The bus driver and six students--four 12-year-old boys and two 11-year-old girls--complained of neck and back pains, Moore said. They were taken to White Memorial, County/USC Medical Center and East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital, where hospital officials said they were treated and released.

The other students boarded another bus and were transported to Pacoima Middle School, Principal David Gonzalez said.

“The students were taken to the nurse’s office to get checked out, and we made calls to parents,” Gonzalez said, adding that crisis counselors were at the school to console to students involved in the crash.

The Los Angeles Unified School District contracted the bus and driver from Ryder Student Transportation, district spokesman Patrick Spencer said.

The accident remained under investigation late Friday, Moore said.

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Times correspondent Joseph Trevino contributed to this story.