Homicide charges are weighed in Boyle Heights school bus crash that kills 1, injures 21

Criminal homicide charges are being weighed in connection with a hit-and-run accident that killed one person and injured nearly two dozen students aboard a school bus in Boyle Heights on Monday, authorities said.

The driver of a black BMW ran a red light, knocked down a pedestrian and broadsided a school bus that was returning students to Roosevelt High School, according to Miguel Luevano, a California Highway Patrol spokesman.

The BMW’s driver and a passenger jumped out of the car and ran, but both were quickly apprehended by construction workers who had seen the crash, Luevano said.

Authorities said they are investigating whether drunk driving might be involved in the 3:22 p.m. collision at 1st and Soto streets. The BMW driver and passenger are juveniles.

Marco Valdez, 17, a passenger on the bus, told The Times the bus had been coming from the East Los Angeles Skills Center when the car hit a pedestrian and then swerved into the bus. The bus overturned and slid onto a Metrolink platform.

“Some kids at the front of the bus were bleeding and scraped up, but everybody seemed all right,” Marco said.

Susana Romero, 16, an 11th-grader at Roosevelt High, said she'd been sitting near the back of the bus talking with friends when she heard a “big boom.”

“It made us fly,” she said. “I flipped. I fell to the other side of the bus and then I blacked out.”

When she came to, the bus was on its side and she could hear people crying and moaning. She said there was a lot of broken glass, which seemed to have bloodied a number of students.

“We were all like ‘Are you OK?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you OK?’ ‘Yes,’ ” Romero said.

She said she crawled to an emergency door at the back of the bus to get out.

The students were among those speaking at the Hollenbeck police station, where she had just been reunited with her mother, Juana Lopez, 39, who was holding her tight. The two live in Boyle Heights. Earlier, her mother had been shaking and in tears as she waited for news of her daughter.

Dozens of spectators, shopkeepers, parents and others gathered at the accident scene as emergency workers assisted students. Among them was L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

“As a parent, one thing we expect is when our kids go to and from school, they are safe,” said Villaraigosa. “We breathe a sigh of relief today that there were no serious or fatal injuries to the children.”

Authorities said 21 people -- all but one students -- were taken to hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries. The bus driver was hospitalized in serious condition.

-- Sam Allen and Kate Linthicum

Photos: School bus crash in Boyle Heights

Comments

[Jeff]

The article is titled "Homicide charges are weighed in Boyle Heights school bus crash that kills 1, injures 21" and yet doesn't tell us who was killed? Was it a student? The pedestrian who was knocked down? Apparently it wasn't the BMW driver. Who was killed?

[Jacqueline]

BMW-driving juvenile? Probably not one of the high school students from the Boyle Heights area. Righteous bourgeoisie

[4Sanity]

I don't think the design and structure for school buses has been updated much in the last 70 years. They have got to me among the most unstable and top-heavy vehicles on the road. All other forms of transportation has been upgraded in terms of safety and stability, and yet students are trucked along in those buses without much change since the 30's.

My condolences to the family of the pedestrian killed, and I am thankful that there are no more casualties.

[aycarumba]

Who died? The pedestrian? No one seems to be saying.

[John De Salvio]

Who was killed?
The pedestrian? TV news reports said a bicyclist was struck.

[Hollywood Kev]

To jump out the car and run after the accident is a cowardly act. We must always be ready to pay the piper when it's time, especially after taking someone life.

[Reality Chick]

When are seatbelts on school busses going to be mandatory? Luckily, none of the teens involved in this accident were killed. The outcome may have been worse had the bus been filled with young children.

[RabidinL.A.]

Weighing the charges? If you're old enough for a DMV issued license and old enough to kill, this qualifies homicide. No compassion for drivers like these that I see and by which am almost killed on a daily basis. All young, and coincidentally most of whom also drive BMWs. I have 50+ red light running traffic violations sent to my address while the not young perpetrator fraudulently uses my address on his CA DMV license without having so much as to provide a proof of address while the DMV readily accepts false IDs. (If not having originated in the same office.) They (DMV) refuse, however, to deal with the issue, stating that there is nothing they can do. WON'T. It is only a matter of time before he too, kills someone. There was no second chance for the innocent victim. Stop coddling criminals. Prosecute for crimes committed. I am lamentably sure, however, that our "justice" system will once again be made a laughingstock.

[daniel]

this accident happened right in front of my house. it was the pedestrian who was killed.