School Bus Crash In La Quinta Holds Back 69 Students
LA QUINTA – A busload of high school studentscheer and wave as drivers pass them at the intersection of Eisenhower Drive and Calle Sinaloa.
They sound thrilled to be out of school, but the situation that left them strandedWednesday is a bit more serious.
“Iwas sitting next to my friend Kyrie,” recalls tenth-grader Mysha Cunningham, “and we were looking out the window, and we just saw a car crash into the bus!”
The accident occurred just before 7:00 a.m. The bus got a dent on the side; the passenger vehicle in worse shape.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the bus was crossing the intersection northbound. The driver of the passenger vehicle was headed eastbound and allegedly didn’t allow enough time for the bus to completely cross.
“It was crazy!”says Mysha. “We all had an adrenaline rush. We were like ‘Oh, my God!'”
Mysha’s mom Yolanda Cano rushed to the scene after hearing about it from a relative and from Mysha herself on a cell phone.
“She said ‘Everybody’s OK. Somebody should be on their way.’ AndI said, ‘OK, that’s all that matters.'”
CHP says 2-3school buses got involved in accidents every month in the Coachella Valley. For Tuesday’sincident, investigators arelooking into whether the sun was a factor and may have temporarily blinded the driver of the passenger vehicle.
Students boarded other buses to get to school nearly two hours after the crash.
No major injuries to report, but one student complained of ankle pain.
The driver of the passenger vehicle suffered a bruised forehead.
