Answers in Fatal Bus Accident Remain Scarce

SAN MARCOS —  Near tears, San Marcos City Councilman Mark Loscher on Wednesday blamed nobody for the death of his daughter in a school bus crash that also injured 13 others, but instead pleaded with parents to express their love for their children.

“Go out and hug your children, it’s really important,” said Loscher, whose popular 13-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was killed Tuesday when a motor home slammed into the back of a bus carrying San Marcos Junior High School students.

For the Loscher family, shaken school children and much of the community, the accident was too painfully fresh Wednesday to give way to understanding and acceptance.

“We can never explain why something like this happens, especially to someone so young,” Loscher said in a telephone interview. But he said he and his wife, Maureen, “are looking at this in a spiritual way; Jennifer set an example here on Earth and God needs her up there now.”

While the Loschers sought peace and strength, the California Highway Patrol was back at Mission Road and Mulberry Drive, studying the trouble-plagued intersection and trying to determine how the accident happened.

“We’re just not pointing any fingers at this time,” said CHP Officer Jerry Bohrer. “Obviously, one of the drivers is at fault. Whenever you have an accident, somebody caused it, somebody made a violation.”

The CHP will restage the incident today using a bus and another vehicle to simulate the collision that happened just before 2 p.m., as children were being driven home from school. The impact nearly tore off the rear of the bus, where Jennifer was sitting.

Fast-growing San Marcos has spent $5 million widening Mission, once a narrow road, to six lanes and putting a complex, multidirectional signal light at the intersection. Nearby residents and merchants have complained of repeated accidents since the signal was installed.

Mayor Lee Thibadeau sadly noted the irony of spending millions of dollars to make the thoroughfare safer.

“The whole council held its breath about that intersection before the improvements,” he said. “We worried about it for a lot of years. Then we finally get it improved and this happens. We’re at a loss.”

To Councilman Loscher, struggling to make sense of what happened, questions about the intersection do not seem important now. “I don’t know about the intersection,” he said. “It’s not something I can or want to deal with at the moment.”

Nor did he blame the veteran bus driver, Dawn Wynne, saying, “She’s not at fault. I hope she has some support too.”

School district officials said Wynne has worked for the district for nine years, has a good driving record and is expected to eventually resume her duties.

Witnesses have told the CHP that the mobile home’s driver, Jamie Pyer, was traveling west about 50 m.p.h. on Mission when he hit the bus as it turned left onto Mulberry in front of him.

While authorities searched for answers, school district officials and a 20-member team of psychologists, counselors and school nurses were dispatched to San Marcos Junior High.

“The kids are upset, confused and in pain,” said Susan Maki, the school’s principal. “Mortality at the age of 13 is not real.”