Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

HORRIFIC SCENE: Four die at bus stop

Driver of sport utility vehicle suffers minor injuries in Smoke Ranch Road crash

Las Vegas Metropolitan police officers gather evidence Monday at the scene where a motorist crashed through a bus stop on Smoke Ranch Road near Tenaya Way, killing four people. Police have not criminally charged or cited the driver, but are awaiting toxicology results to determine if she was intoxicated. Photo by Gary Thompson.

A sport utility vehicle swerved off Smoke Ranch Road Monday morning and smashed through a bus shelter, killing four people awaiting a transit bus and scattering their bodies on the sidewalk and in the street.

The driver of the SUV, Veronica Schmidt, 34, suffered only minor injuries in the crash, which unfolded around 7:18 a.m. near the intersection of Smoke Ranch and Rock Springs Drive, east of Tenaya Way.

Schmidt was taken by police to the Clark County Detention Center, where she was questioned and a sample of her blood was drawn. As of late Monday, she had not been booked or charged in connection with the tragedy that claimed the lives of three Cimarron-Memorial High School students.

"Initially, officers observed the driver and suspected that she may have been impaired," Las Vegas police Sgt. Chris Jones said. "But after further investigation and talking with the driver and family members, we are looking at the possibility that it may be medical related. But we are not ruling out that it may be impairment."

Later in the day, police said in a written statement: "Further investigation revealed the driver may have suffered a medical episode just prior to the collision."

Three of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth was transported to University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, police said.

The Clark County coroner's office didn't release the identities of the victims on Monday.

But Clark County School District officials sent out an internal e-mail identifying three of the victims as students at Cimarron-Memorial High School, according to a source who asked not to be named. According to the source, the e-mail indicated two of the victims were freshmen and one was a sophomore at the school located within walking distance of the scene of the accident.

District officials later confirmed two of the victims were Cimarron-Memorial freshman Angelica Jimenez and sophomore Reginald Williams. The name of the third student wasn't available Monday.

The fourth victim, whom authorities described as a 36-year-old woman, also wasn't available Monday.

Police said there is no indication Schmidt, a Las Vegan, exceeded the posted 35 mph speed limit as she traveled eastbound on Smoke Ranch. But the SUV she was driving drifted from the right-hand lane, crossed about 10 feet of shoulder, hopped a curb, hit a wall and continued east on the sidewalk, finally ramming through the bus shelter and into the victims.

The front of the vehicle, which bore Nebraska plates, collided with the victims before coming to a rest on its side in the eastbound lanes of Smoke Ranch.

Schmidt crawled from her overturned vehicle, police said. There she was confronted by scattered glass, books and backpacks, and the bodies of the four bloodied victims who lay on the sidewalk and road.

Police found no heavy skid marks, indicating Schmidt did not slam on her brakes before the collision.

A decision on whether to charge Schmidt, who police said has no criminal record in Nevada, will be made by the district attorney, authorities said. That decision is unlikely until the results of her toxicology tests are available. Those findings could be available by week's end, officials said.

Residents of a nearby apartment complex surveying the scene Monday expressed outrage at the driver's actions.

"It's insane. It's just horrific," said Paul Fusco, 53. "Those ... people don't deserve this.

"You know what hurts most? I bet nothing happened to the one (who was) driving. I bet she's fine."

It was not known where Schmidt was heading when she lost control of her 5,000-pound vehicle at precisely the point where the consequences proved so deadly. The crash is particularly puzzling given the layout of the road where it occurred: It's straight and spacious.

Traffic was relatively light at the time of the accident.

Monday's crash was at least the fourth crash in the past three years in which bystanders awaiting a Citizens Area Transit bus were killed by an out-of-control vehicle.

Regional Transportation Commission officials said they doubted whether a different bus stop configuration could have prevented Monday's crash.

"You've got a space, but you don't have physical barriers between the drivers and the bus stop," said Sue Christiansen, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Commission. "In this case, I don't know if they (an additional buffer) would have done any good."

Before Monday, the most recent such crash claimed the life of Eulogia Avendano, a 4-year-old boy, and seriously injured his mother. In the May 3, 2004 incident, a pickup drifted off Eastern Avenue and into a bus stop near U.S. Highway 95.

The truck's driver, Nicolas Serrano-Villagrana, tested positive for cocaine, and his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. He was sentenced to 12 to 40 years in prison last month, after a jury convicted him of felony drunken driving.

On Dec. 25, 2003, Bruce Lynn Kirton, 49, died at a bus shelter near Flamingo Road and Valley View Boulevard when he was hit by a car that ran a red light, collided with a car and crashed into the bus stop.

Police later arrested John William Olney for felony drunken driving in connection with the crash.

A drunken driver killed John Wan, 50, who was struck by a pickup just before 6 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2002 at a bus stop on Fremont Street near Charleston Boulevard.

William Schwalbach, 63, was later sentenced to two to five years in prison after pleading guilty to felony drunken driving.

Late last year, a vehicle struck a northeast valley bus shelter, but no bystanders were injured. The driver, Ronald Soriano, then 23, was critically hurt in the crash, which occurred along Las Vegas Boulevard North on Dec. 25.

Review-Journal staff writers Omar Sofradzija and Antonio Planas contributed to this story.