2 dead after collisions involving school buses in Los Angeles County

LOCATION: 1727 Columbia Way AREA/CITY: Lancaster DETAILS: At least one person is deceased after an SUV and yellow school bus collided head on. Unknown how the crash occurred. CHP was at the scene along with LASD officers investigating. LASD remains at the scene for the remainder of the investigation.
One person was killed after an SUV and school bus collided head-on in Lancaster Friday. It was one of two fatal crashes involving school buses in Los Angeles County that morning. (OnScene.TV)

Two people were killed in separate, unrelated collisions involving school buses in Los Angeles County on Friday morning, authorities said.

About 7 a.m., a gray SUV traveling east on Avenue M in Lancaster swerved into oncoming lanes of traffic and collided head-on with a school bus east of 20th Street West, according to Deputy Veronica Fantom, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The driver of the SUV was pronounced dead at the scene, Fantom said.

There were no children on the school bus at the time of the crash, she said, but KTLA reported that two adults on the bus were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

It is currently unknown if alcohol, drugs or speed played a role in the crash, Fantom said.

The second deadly crash took place at the intersection of Del Amo and Norwalk boulevards in the vicinity of the border between Lakewood and Cerritos, when a vehicle ran a red light and collided with a school bus about 8:30 a.m., Fantom said.

After hitting the bus, the vehicle then veered onto a nearby sidewalk — colliding with an elderly female bicyclist, Fantom said. L.A. County Fire Department paramedics responded and pronounced the cyclist dead at the scene, she said.

No children were aboard the bus and there were no other known injuries, she said.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Advertisement