A school bus full of children from Hill Middle School veered out of control after striking a parked car and plowed through the front of a house in Denver’s Hilltop neighborhood Wednesday.
Sixteen children, an adult in the parked car, the bus driver and a man running to help were taken to five hospitals, officials said. No one was inside the house.
All but a few of the injured were treated and released. Officials at the scene said none of the injuries appeared serious, and one teenage girl on the bus said no one seemed to be hurt “too bad.”
Sarah Carrillo, 13, who wore a knee brace when she left University of Colorado Hospital, later said, “A lot of kids have scratches and bruises.”
The 27 children on the bus and witnesses screamed as the bus flew across the lawns of two homes, across East Fifth Avenue and into the dining-room wall of the newly remodeled home of Tracey Lepine at East Fifth Avenue and Albion Street about 2:40 p.m.
Carrillo and another eighth-grader who were taken to University Hospital for minor injuries said the driver wasn’t paying attention to the road. The driver, identified as Katherine Sierra, couldn’t be reached for response.
The students on the bus were quiet before the accident because the driver is strict, said Carrillo.
The driver – who was hired in October 2000 – had turned around to reach for a sweater flapping out of a window when the bus hit the parked car outside Steck Elementary School, Carrillo said. Steck adjoins Hill Middle School on the same campus.
“She was grabbing the sweater and got distracted,” said Carrillo, who was sitting near the middle of the bus.
The bus struck the left rear of a 2000 Saab occupied by a woman waiting to pick up her child.
The bus hit the car, which was parked on the right side of Albion, swerved to the left, appeared to accelerate, jumped a curb and went across the front yards of two homes. Leaving a trail of dirt and turf across East Fifth Avenue, it climbed a bank and slammed into Lepine’s two-story red brick home.
“The bus went airborne and landed in the house,” said Carrillo’s cousin Martin Ramirez, 14, who was sitting behind the driver.
Carrillo suffered a sprained knee, and Ramirez’s wrist was sore and swollen .
Ramirez said he saw a child fly across the bus, and afterward many of the children were shocked and in tears.
Through the panic, Ramirez said he told others to open the emergency exit at the rear, and helped them get out.
Sierra never did get her sweater from the window, Carrillo said.
David Padilla had just parked his pickup in front of 445 Albion St., where he intended to visit a friend, when he heard a “thump” and looked up to see the big yellow bus barreling at him.
“I froze,” he said. “I was scared. I didn’t know which way to run.”
Padilla said he could see the driver’s hair flying up and her hands on the steering wheel as the bus bounced by him.
“I had my heart up here,” he said, reaching for his throat.
But, he said, the driver swerved to her left to avoid hitting a car parked in front of Padilla and jumped the curb onto the lawn at the house.
“I believe she must have panicked when she hit the first car,” he said.
A source close the accident investigation told 9News the bus had no mechanical problems.
Debbie Anderson, an employee at Steck, was getting ready to back her car out of the school parking lot on the corner of Fifth and Albion when she heard a “pop.”
“This school bus was coming down the street. It was wobbling. The kids were screaming because they had just hit a car,” Anderson said.
She said the bus jumped a curb, then “it was airborne and went right in that house.”
As soon as the bus came to a stop, there was a “dead silence.” She said it was a “creepy silence.”
Then people started running for the bus to help those on board.
Padilla said he was the first to reach the door of the bus and had a hard time getting it open. Kids on the bus were screaming, he said, and so were many of the neighbors.
“There was screaming all over,” he said. He kicked in the folding door and was helped by someone else to force it open.
The driver appeared dazed but said everyone was “OK” after Padilla asked.
Padilla said all the children managed to get themselves off the bus.
The mother of a Steck student said she was relieved the elementary school hadn’t let out yet.
“I can’t imagine what would have happened if school was already out,” Tonia Hunstad said. “Nobody was out here yet, just a few parents walking up.”
Staff writer Jim Kirksey can be reached at 303-820-1448 or jkirksey@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Katherine Crowell can be reached at 303-820-1201 or kcrowell@denverpost.com.
