HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – A car plowed into a bustling child care center on Thursday, pinning a 2-year-old boy underneath it and injuring four other youngsters.
The car was driven by the mother of one of the children enrolled at the school.
The crash occurred around 7:45 a.m. at Childtime Learning Centers on Yorktown Avenue. There were 14 children inside at the time, Huntington Beach fire department spokeswoman Martha Werth said.
Five children under the age of 5 were transported to hospitals: two with serious injuries and three with minor injuries, Huntington Beach police Lt. Russell Reinhart said. No adults were injured.
Werth said the 2-year-old boy who was pinned was taken by ambulance to a local trauma center, but was expected to survive. She said another child, a 3-year-old girl, was also taken to a trauma center.
The mother was at the wheel of the car when the vehicle jumped the sidewalk and crashed through a doorway, Werth said. Her child was still in the car and mother and child were uninjured.
The motorist had not been charged and the cause of the accident was under investigation, Reinhart said.
The accident also caused a power outage and the school was closed Thursday, said Amy Popp, a spokeswoman for the Michigan-based Childtime Learning Centers chain.
"For safety reasons, we have made the decision to close the school," she said in a statement. "Our children are precious to us, and we immediately reached out to alert all of our families of the situation."
Childtime's national Web site said the company was originally founded in 1967 as a division of Gerber Products Corporation and currently has 275 locations nationwide.
The schools offer childcare and educational services to children from infancy through 12 years of age. Nearly 25,000 children are enrolled in its programs.
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