On Wednesday, December 5, at 10:14 AM, 8 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 10 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 1 Heavy Rescue, 3 EMS Battalion Captains, 1 Battalion Chief Officer Command Team and 1 Division Chief Officer Command Team, a total of 69 Los Angeles Fire Department personnel under the direction of Battalion Chief Chris Kawai responded to a Multi-Patient Traffic Collision at 1760 North Gower Street in Hollywood.
Firefighters arrived quickly at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood to discover a privately owned charter bus that had left the adjacent roadway before crashing through a fence and colliding with trees on the church grounds.
According to witnesses, the full-sized bus with 40 passengers aboard, was descending the Gower Street offramp from the southbound Hollywood (101) Freeway when the driver was unable to stop.
The bus collided with a sedan at the end of the offramp before careening southeast to jump the curb, damage a fence and collide with two large pine trees on the church property. One of the two-foot diameter trees was toppled, and the bus came to rest against the other before striking any church buildings.
Lightly trapped by the dashboard and steering wheel, the driver of the bus was skillfully freed by Los Angeles Firefighters using hydraulic prying tools. Listed in fair condition with non-life threatening injuries, she was soon taken to an area hospital for further evaluation.
The 40 bus passengers, all adults, as well as the driver and child passenger of the sedan were medically evaluated at the scene before 18 of them - including both sedan occupants, accepted ambulance transportation to area hospitals for non-life threatening injuries.
The remaining passengers were warmly welcomed by the church staff to occupy their sanctuary while awaiting transportation. Later vocalizing concern, the two dozen uninjured persons adamantly refused to board another bus sent by the charter company, and instead sought alternate personal transportation to their point of departure in Ventura County.
The California Highway Patrol is formally investigating this collision.
