Firefighters extricate the driver from the front of a school bus that crashed, Thursday, April 24, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif. Three of the injured, the driver and two of the children, were taken to hospitals in critical condition after the crash, Anaheim police Lt. Bob Dunn said. The other nine students had minor injuries, and most of them were released to their parents. Police say no other vehicles were involved in the crash and there is no immediate word on the cause. (AP Photo/Kevin Warn) (The Associated Press)
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Authorities have interviewed the driver of a California school bus that crashed but still don't know what caused the bus to veer out of its lane, over a curb and into trees and a lamp post, injuring 12 people, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said Friday.
The driver gave investigators a brief statement late Thursday, spokesman Valentino Olivera said. He did not know what the driver told authorities.
Investigators will also review surveillance videos from two on-board cameras, and they plan to inspect the bus next week. They are also looking into the driver's medical history and will interview witnesses, including one who said they bus may have been going 70 mph, Olivera said.
It was too early to determine if the driver could be subject to a criminal investigation, he said. There were no skid marks at the scene, and the CHP will try to determine if the brakes were working.
Two students and the driver remained hospitalized Friday, but they were expected to survive, Anaheim police Lt. Bob Dunn said.
Three others with minor injuries were released from the hospital late Thursday and six more were treated at the scene.
The most seriously hurt in the Thursday afternoon crash was the driver, who had to be cut from the bus and pulled through the windshield before he was taken by ambulance to University of California, Irvine Medical Center, authorities said.
Student Jak Pintches, 14, said the bus went off the road during a turn.
"I flew out of my seat and hit the other side of the bus" and injured his back, the teenager told the Orange County Register.
Part of a tree went into the bus and cut a girl's leg, he said.
After the crash, someone ran up and told everyone to get off because the bus was leaking gasoline, he said.
The bus was taking students home from an after-school activity at El Rancho Charter Middle School in Anaheim when it crashed next to Anaheim Hills Golf Course, said a statement from Michael L. Christensen, superintendent of the Orange Unified School District.
Witness Andrea Shurtz, one of many people driving nearby who saw the crash, said the bus was going fast when it hit a curb and appeared to go airborne.
"It came flying down the hill," Shurtz told KABC-TV, "and took out trees along the way."
Shurtz said the driver and several students were hanging out of the bus's windows and yelling for help from passing drivers.
"Kids were screaming. Gas was pouring out the back," Shurtz said. "People just came running from everywhere."
The bus was equipped with seat belts, police said, but it wasn't clear how many of the students were wearing them.
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