5 injured when car hits Orange Line bus
A speeding car slammed into an MTA Orange Line bus Saturday in Van Nuys, injuring the motorist, bus driver and three passengers.
Los Angeles firefighters extracted the trapped motorist, an unidentified woman in her 70s, from the car. She was transported to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills with serious injuries and may have lost an arm, said Dave Sotero, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The bus driver and passengers suffered minor injuries, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Sotero said a review of closed-circuit TV footage showed that the car was moving fast when the driver ran a red light and crashed into the bus at Sepulveda Boulevard and Oxnard Street. About 25 passengers were aboard the westbound vehicle.
It was the second serious accident involving an MTA bus in recent days. On Thursday, an MTA driver was killed when a motorist broadsided his bus at an intersection in Willowbrook. The bus driver was ejected from the bus and run over by its rear wheels.
Saturday’s accident was also the latest involving the Orange Line, a popular express service that runs on a 14-mile busway from the North Hollywood Red Line subway station across the Valley to Warner Center.
After a series of accidents that began just before the line officially opened in October 2005, some red light cameras were installed along the route and strobe lights were placed on the buses.
The distinctive accordion-like buses, which can carry 65 passengers, also slow at intersections.
Most of the early Orange Line accidents were caused by motorists running red lights, MTA officials said.
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