A sedan driver died and two children suffered minor injuries Friday afternoon when their vehicle collided head-on with a school bus carrying roughly 35 students on rural State Route 94 near Potrero. The crash happened around 3:40 p.m. near Plaskon Lane, shutting down the highway in both directions as emergency crews worked the scene.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Cal Fire officials confirmed the sedan driver died in the collision and that two children aboard the bus were hurt. The bus was carrying children from Potrero Elementary School at the time of the crash, the paper reported.
Cal Fire spokesperson Capt. Josh Cormode told the paper the crash occurred on the rural stretch of State Route 94 near Plaskon Lane. A California Highway Patrol incident log described the collision as head-on and noted that the school bus struck a pole, the paper's reporting states.
Minor Injuries, Hospital Checks for Students
The two injured children suffered only minor injuries, the report notes, and students from the bus were taken to a hospital. Cormode said Potrero Elementary School and the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services were both notified of the crash, and that parent pickup arrangements were being made for the students involved.
No further details about the crash were immediately available, per the same account. CHP officials said State Route 94 remained shut down in both directions because of the crash, and the agency urged people to avoid the area while emergency personnel worked to reopen the roadway, according to a statement posted to X.
Other California School Bus Crashes in Recent Years
In August 2019, 11 people were hurt when two charter buses and a moving truck collided near State Route 76 in Valley Center, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. One of those charter buses carried 31 children and four adults, while the other carried 27 students and five adults, the paper reported at the time.
In August 2024, a head-on collision between a Kia Forte and a school bus in Santa Cruz County injured two people, including a student, ABC News reported. A 13-year-old girl on that bus was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries, according to the outlet.
A separate Santa Cruz County crash on Highway 17 left a driver with major injuries after she rear-ended a school bus and crashed into a tree, ABC7 News reported, citing a report. That same report said two children on the bus suffered minor injuries, though the school district told ABC7 that no students were hurt in the crash — an account the outlet presented alongside the conflicting report.
No further details about the cause of Friday's Potrero crash had been released as of the latest reporting.
