Police: Bus driver ran red light

If there’s anything scarier than seeing a school bus lose control and careen onto someone’s lawn, it’s being inside that house and seeing the yellow beast headed straight for you.

In what can be considered both a terrifying and miraculous crash at once, police said a Newport-Mesa school district bus ran a red light at 30 mph, collided with an SUV, lost control and steered into a house only to stop before smashing into it by inches. There were no kids on the bus and the driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

“All I heard was like thunder coming right at me. I looked up and he was coming at me. I kept saying stop! He was right there!” said Judy Stricker, the shaken, but relieved owner of the northwest corner house at Baker Street and Royal Palm Drive. “I looked through the crack of my window shades and he was right there. It was like sitting in a 3-D movie!”

Indeed, the bus driver, Tewodros “Ted” Kifly, who has been driving for the district for about four years, steered the bus onto Stricker’s lawn at about 3:30 p.m., taking out decorations but stopping just before crashing into the home. Not even the protruding rear view mirrors off the front of the bus made contact.

District officials said he was on his way to pickup kids from TeWinkle Middle School and had just dropped off a child from Newport Heights Elementary School.

The only damage done was to the lawn, a couple of bushes and to the house wall when Stricker’s lawn decorations were launched toward her bedroom window and wall.

“I couldn’t even move. I was kind of paralyzed,” Stricker recalled. She was sitting on the edge of her bed watching TV when the bus headed toward her. Had it continued on, it would have barreled squarely into her.

“It’s a miracle, just a miracle,” she said.

Police said their initial report shows Kifly, 47, was northbound on Royal Palm Drive and ran the red light. An SUV eastbound on Baker Street slammed into front left side, crushing its whole front end, while the bus sustained minimal damage. The bus driver lost control and made a 90-degree turn to the left, knocked down a street sign and stopped on Stricker’s lawn, taking out a concrete decoration, police said.

“He crushed a Pagoda but missed the house by three inches,” Sgt. Victor Bakkila said. Kifly was cited for running the red and the SUV driver, Salvador Arreola-Pantoja, 28, was cited for not having a license, Bakkila said.

Reporter JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].