Several Students Hit By SUV Near Northern Calif. Middle School; At Least 2 Seriously Hurt

Wednesday, May 2nd 2007, 8:17 pm

By: News On 6

BELMONT, Calif. (AP) _ A sport utility vehicle jumped a curb outside a middle school Wednesday and plowed into a group of children, seriously injuring at least two of them, police and hospital officials said.

The students were waiting for a bus at Ralston Middle School around 12:30 p.m. when a Honda Pilot hit six or seven of them, a police dispatcher said.

Four teenagers were admitted to Stanford Medical Center, two with potentially life-threatening injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said. One young victim was taken by helicopter to Eden Medical Center's trauma center in Castro Valley, hospital spokeswoman Cassandra Phelps said.

Several other hospitals reported receiving patients involved in the crash in Belmont, about 25 miles south of San Francisco. The school's principal told reporters that the SUV's driver was also hospitalized, along with several students who were not hit but were traumatized by the experience.

The driver's name and condition were unknown.

Students were leaving school early because of standardized testing, school officials said.

The pastor at Fellowship Bible Church, which is near the school, went there to counsel students shaken up after witnessing the crash, said Lawrence Chu, the school's office manager.