School bus driver said he swerved to avoid SUV. That’s not what video shows, CA cops say
At first, the school bus driver told officers he’d crashed the vehicle into a pole in April trying to avoid an oncoming SUV that crossed into his lane, according to California Highway Patrol.
The bus was carrying 34 students to Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville when driver Francisco Solano Valenzuela hit a pole around 8 a.m. April 23, KSBW reports. Teetering on the side of the road, the crashed bus left the power pole snapped in half — with downed power lines dangling over the bus and road like an electrified ropes course.
But after looking at surveillance footage from inside the bus, CHP officers determined the white SUV that Valenzuela had blamed didn’t actually cause the crash: “The video shows him clearly falling asleep,” Officer Sam Courtney told KSBW.
Valenzuela faces misdemeanor charges for giving false information to an officer and for child endangerment, the TV station reports. He has not been arrested.
The danger didn’t stop after students made it through the initial impact unscathed, the CHP told KION. The driver then told them to get out of the bus through an emergency side door in the back, despite the fact that power lines were dangling.
“Definitely dangerous getting out of a bus with live power lines nearby,” Courtney told KION. “The bus could have been energized … if it had made any contact, just simply touching the ground would have been enough. So very fortunate that no one was hurt getting out of that bus.”
All of the students survived the crash without serious injuries, the CHP said — likely because the bus had seat belts. The children got on another bus and continued to school, according to CAL FIRE.
Parents told KSBW it wasn’t the first problem they’ve had with the driver.
“We have complained about him before in the past,” Allison Sicoli, a parent, told KSBW. “Thank God our children were OK. This could have been so much worse. If the trees and pole didn’t stop them, they could have gone down a cliff.”
Initially, police said the man who supposedly drove the white SUV the bus driver blamed the crash on could face non-contact hit-and-run charges, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.
The road was closed for some time after the crash due to the downed power lines, Cal Fire said.
This story was originally published May 9, 2018 at 7:28 PM with the headline "School bus driver said he swerved to avoid SUV. That’s not what video shows, CA cops say."