About two dozen teens and adults were injured in a bus accident along a narrow stretch of California cliffside roadway while on the way home from a Catholic youth retreat, with one passenger calling their survival a “miracle.”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange announced in an X post Monday that children and staff at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana were injured in a bus accident Sunday evening on their way back from a youth retreat in the San Bernardino Mountains.
“We invite all in the Diocese of Orange, and all people of goodwill, to join in prayer for healing as a way to cope with this tragic incident,” the diocese added. “May the Lord bring healing, comfort, and peace to the Our Lady of Guadalupe (Santa Ana) community.”
The Diocese of Orange also thanked first responders for their “quick and professional handling of the accident, and for directing the injured to medical care.”
The San Bernardino County Fire Department published an X post providing additional details about the accident, saying the bus was carrying 36 people and “rolled over at a curve” on Highway 330, south of Running Springs. Twenty-six patients were treated for injuries, including three with major injuries. The injured passengers are “a mix of adults and teens.
Twenty of the 26 accident victims were transported to area hospitals via ambulance, while the remaining passengers on the bus declined to receive medical care. The California Highway Patrol is leading the investigation into the cause of the accident.
“Dispatched just before 9 p.m., first-arriving crews arrived to find the bus on its side in a turnout, with subjects extricating themselves — including many through the vehicle’s roof hatch,” the San Bernardino County Fire Department statement reads.
Ariana Rivera, one of the teenage passengers injured in the accident, told KTLA that the bus “flipped and then it slid.” She recalled how she lost consciousness before she woke up “in shock.”
The accident was caused when the bus’ brakes reportedly failed, and the bus driver had to turn the bus left into a boulder to avoid a nearby cliff, KTLA reports.
In a separate interview with CBS LA, Rivera said she reacted when the bus driver informed the passengers that the accident was imminent.
“I turned to my sister and I grabbed her and then I just prayed to God that everything was going to be OK,” she said.
Rivera’s sister, Brittany, who also prayed to God upon learning about the accident, maintained that the experience taught her that “life could end in one second” and expressed confidence that “God made a miracle” by enabling her and the other passengers to survive.
Earlier this year, the San Bernardino County Fire Department participated in a multi-agency mass casualty incident drill that centered on a scenario involving an overturned school bus with both adults and teens on board.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
