Eight children were rushed to the hospital with minor injuries Friday afternoon after a vehicle crashed into a preschool classroom during summer camp, according to the Glendale Police Department.
Glendale police got a call just before 2 p.m. that a vehicle had struck the Grandview House Preschool in the 1200 block of North Pacific Avenue.
A 79-year-old woman who was not affiliated with the school had been trying to make a U-turn in the school parking lot, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Gaik Pobokhian, when she mistook the gas and brake pedals and hit the gas pedal “way too hard.”
The woman accelerated through the parking lot in her black Infiniti sedan, Pobokhian said, hit a parked car, drove through a metal gate separating the building from the parking lot, and then proceeded through the wall of the school into the classroom.
“It was chaos,” Pobokhian said.
That day, he said, the facility had 60 4- and 5-year-old children at the school for summer camp. Neighbors and people driving by rushed to the scene to help, and some removed chunks of stucco wall covering the children, bringing them to safety.
“The whole gate was on top of the kids,” Vigen Hovsepyan told KABC-TV Channel 7 after entering the school to rescue the children. “It was like in a horror movie. I was shocked.”
Eight children were transported to hospitals with minor injuries, and all were released to their families by the end of the day. No adults were injured.
Pobokhian said the crash appears to have been an accident. The driver, who is cooperating with the investigation, was released from the scene without any criminal charges.
“There were no signs of DUI, no indication she was impaired,” Pobokhian said. “And fortunately, there was no serious injury … We hope that the kids bounce back from this and are not too traumatized.”
