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Breaking News

Bus Crashes into Pasadena Hotel, Injuring 23

Aired June 18, 2001 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We have a breaking story that we're covering right now, story that just broke in the last hour this morning, a bus crash in Pasadena. Right now, we understand there are at least 23 injuries. Let's get the latest right now from Mark Littman. He is with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Mr. Littman, what do you know about this crash?

MARK LITTMAN, LOS ANGELES METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHORITY: Well, we know it happened a little after 7:00 this morning. We believe our bus was heading through a green light southbound on Los Robles street when a car heading at a high rate of speed apparently ran a red light, hit the left front corner of the bus, spun it out of control and the bus, in turn, hit the archway, maybe even penetrated the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel there.

HARRIS: So, you don't know yet whether or not the building is damaged very badly?

LITTMAN: All we've heard at this point is that there's an archway there at the hotel, that was hit. The went onto the sidewalk, hit the archway. Some say that it may have actually gone into lobby, but we haven't confirmed yet. We do know that 23 people were transported from the bus, including 10 high school students, who were taken to local hospitals. We don't know the extent of their injuries.

HARRIS: Do you know how many people were on the bus totally?

LITTMAN: That's during rush hour there, so there could have been as many as 40 people on the bush, but I don't have a confirmation on that.

HARRIS: And the extent of the injuries, were there any that were very extensive?

LITTMAN: We haven't heard the extent of the injuries yet nor do we know if the occupants of the car were injured.

HARRIS: OK, you don't have any idea -- any word, rather on the driver of that car, then?

LITTMAN: Not at this point.

HARRIS: Do you know -- can you tell us which hospital they were all taken to?

LITTMAN: They were taken to two hospitals, Perdugal (ph) Hospital and Methodist Hospital and again, 10 of the injured were from two high schools, Blair High School and Rose City High School.

HARRIS: OK, and assuming that the bus hit -- from what we can tell from the pictures, it looks like the nose of the bus did hit that building directly, what about your driver? Can you give us an idea about what condition the driver is in?

LITTMAN: The driver -- no. At this point, we haven't got -- we know the driver is Rosa Avilino (ph), but we don't know at this point whether she was injured or extent of her injuries if she was.

HARRIS: OK, thank you very much for that information. Mark , who's with the Los Angeles MTA. We appreciate that.

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