Freeway Bus Crash Injures 21 : Accident: Tour vehicle carrying 42 senior citizens began chain-reaction smashup involving three other vehicles in Fountain Valley. No one was seriously injured.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY —  A group of senior citizens from Inglewood were among about 21 people injured Wednesday when their tour bus failed to stop for slowing traffic on the San Diego Freeway, the CHP said.

Four vehicles were involved in the 9:30 a.m. crash in the car-pool lane, which caused commuter traffic to back up into Los Angeles County.

The pileup occurred as traffic slowed to a stop near the Bushard Street overpass because of congestion. A van, a pickup truck and two buses were involved, but no one was seriously injured.

“It could have been far worse,” Highway Patrol Officer Lyle Whitten said. “But we lucked out here.”

The tour bus, operated by Red Carpet Lines Inc. of Los Angeles and carrying 42 seniors, hit a bus in front of it “pretty hard and knocked the front bus about eight feet,” Whitten said. The front bus rear-ended a pickup truck, which then rear-ended a van.

Alan D. Henderson, 43, of Long Beach, a passenger in the pickup, suffered severe back strain.

The Red Carpet tour bus had left Inglewood at 8:45 a.m. and was due to arrive at the Lawrence Welk Village in Escondido about two hours later. The passengers were members of the Siminski Club, a senior citizen’s club in Inglewood.

Most of the victims reportedly had only minor injuries but as a precaution, 21 people, including 19 from the tour bus, were sent to area hospitals, Whitten said.

“Most of these elderly people I saw had minor cuts and bruises,” he said. “But we had some people in their 70s and 80s, and some perhaps with heart conditions. We couldn’t tell, so we transported them” for examinations.

The tour bus was driven by Nathan Manuel, 33, of Los Angeles. A Red Carpet company spokesman, Wilbur Cotton, described Manuel as the company’s “No. 1 driver.” Cotton also said the bus in Wednesday’s accident was safe and had no mechanical problems.

“No matter how good the brakes are, it takes time to stop it,” Cotton said. “It’s just one of those things that happens on the freeway.”

A California Highway Patrol spokesman said the CHP will investigate the accident. No citations were issued.

Sam Haynes, a CHP spokesman in Sacramento, said Red Carpet had no other accidents on file.

The driver of the other tour bus was identified as Masami Izaki, 42, of Los Angeles, working for Sunrise Plaza Transportation Co. of Los Angeles. The only other person aboard Sunrise’s bus was an unidentified passenger who was not injured. Sunrise officials declined comment.

After complaining of neck pain, Izaki was transported to a hospital where he was treated and released.

The seniors, ranging in age from 67 to 90, were on their way to a luncheon in Escondido, where they were scheduled to see the musical, “Brigadoon,” at the Welk village.

Inglewood resident Elsa Gengenbach, 87, suffered a broken nose, which required stitches, and a cut on her cheek, possibly from her broken glasses.

Hawthorne resident Ann Cheesemen, 90, sustained a deep cut in her leg.

“I was shocked. It just startled me so. I was looking out the window and then bang! Next thing I knew, the window was shattered,” Cheesemen said. “We’re just lucky we’re alive, somebody could’ve gotten killed, but we were able to walk away.”

Henry Waters, who was sitting in a front seat, recalled bracing himself for the crash.

“We were just going down this free lane here, and all at once I looked in front of us and there was a bus,” he said. “Our driver tried to stop, and I braced myself because I knew he wasn’t going to make it. He hit the back end of the (other) bus.”

Nellie Woolgar, 86, of Inglewood, and her friend, Barbara Bady, 79, of Los Angeles, both bumped and bruised their noses when they were thrust against the seat in front of them during the accident.

“I don’t know what happened. All I know is we slammed into a seat,” Woolgar said after she was treated at Humana Hospital-Huntington Beach. “I’m tired. It’s something you just don’t want to experience very often.”

A couple from Hawthorne were among five patients, including Izaki, who were treated for minor injuries at Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana.

“We just looked up and he was only about that far from the other bus,” said the 72-year-old man, whose tooth was chipped in the accident.

“We’ve still never seen Brigadoon,” his wife added.

Times staff writers Jodi Wilgoren and Minerva Canto contributed to this story.

How Chain Reaction Occurred A tour bus hit one of several vehicles stopped in the car-pool lane of the southbound San Diego Freeway in Fountain Valley, causing other smashups that injured 21 in all. 1. Tour bus full of passengers hits another bus that was stopped because of congestion. Nineteen passengers on tour bus and the driver of the second bus were injured. 2. Second bus is knocked into pickup truck; passengers in truck is injured. 3. Pickup truck hits van, but causes no injuries to the passengers inside the van. Researched by ERIC YOUNG / Los Angeles Times