Eight elementary schoolchildren and one adult were injured this afternoon when the 16th Street Mall shuttle bus they were riding on hit a car on Broadway.
The Montclair Elementary School third-graders were transported by ambulance to Denver Health Medical Center with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
“I flew out of my seat and I saw other people, they hit their heads and stuff. Most of my friends were crying,” said a Montclair student, Sam Altman, 8, who was on the shuttle.
The injured children were among a class of 24 students returning about 2 p.m. from a performance of Le Corsaire at the Colorado Ballet, said their teacher, Kyle Kimmal. “The bus was honking at a car, and then all of a sudden I heard a crash and all these kids came flying,” said Kimmal, who was sitting near the rear of the shuttle.
RTD spokesman Scott Reed said he didn’t know who was at fault in the accident. The agency is awaiting the results of a police investigation.
Prior to the accident, a cab stopped at the curb on Broadway at 16th Street. The taxi blocked a truck and a car behind that truck jutted into the intersection, and kept the Mall shuttle from moving, said Sherry Richardson, a witness.
The bus driver, who wasn’t identified, leaned on his horn and when the car moved out of the way the shuttle pulled into the intersection.
Traffic that had been stopped at the light on Broadway was already moving when the bus began rolling, Richardson said. “He just kept going and going and before I knew it, smash,” said Richardson.
A 1985 Mercedes-Benz driven by Shareq Khan was traveling south on Broadway when the bus struck his car. He wasn’t injured.
Richardson and another witness, Pat Colantino, said Khan’s sedan was traveling through a green light when the bus ran into it, putting a deep crease in the passenger side door.
