A student who became pinned underneath a car after a midday accident at Alice Shaw Elementary School in Orcutt on Dec. 8 suffered only minor scrapes and bruises, according to California Highway Patrol officer David Medina.
According to Medina, the chaotic scene unfolded as students were lining up for lunch at approximately 11:45 a.m. when a car driven by a 90-year-old woman lost control, accelerating over the concrete parking stop and into the students.
Medina said the driver, identified as Margaret Peden, was pulling into a handicapped parking spot to pick up her granddaughter when her foot apparently slipped off the brake pedal and onto the accelerator pedal.
The car knocked down the handicapped sign and became stuck after the sign’s concrete base became lodged underneath the car, Medina said.
Six students, all ranging between ages of 6 and 8, were injured, Medina said, none seriously. One student was pinned underneath the car, but the concrete base prevented the child from being crushed, Medina said.
The student was flown to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital where it was determined that he wasn’t seriously injured.
“If that wasn’t there, the kid would have been crushed,” Medina said. “Miraculously, there was no broken bones or major injuries.”
There was no damage to the building, however there was damage to the right front bumper of Peden’s Hyundai Sonata.
Medina said that Peden did not appear to be intoxicated or impaired at the time of the incident, which is still under investigation.
Peden wasn’t arrested and isn’t facing criminal charges, Medina said, although he added that there could be “some sanctions” placed against her driver’s license with the Department of Motor Vehicles.
This article appears in Dec 17-24, 2015.
