Va. Beach woman charged after man, children struck

VIRGINIA BEACH

Celia Ruiz was putting her daughter on the school bus Thursday morning when she heard the crash behind her.

A blue Ford Ranger pickup coming down Chester Street had run past the bus, off the pavement and into a front yard across the street – exactly the spot where a father was walking three family members to the corner bus stop. The truck hit the family with a bang that echoed up the street.

“When I turned around,” Ruiz said, “they were in the air, falling like rag dolls.”

She knows the family. David Yancy is a bus mechanic for the public schools, she said. The parents sometimes care for her daughter, and their children like to play together.

Now the four figures were sprawled on the ground. Ruiz said she ran over and performed CPR on one, a little boy, before paramedics arrived.

Police said today a five-year-old remains in critical condition. In a news release Thursday, they said a 7-year-old was in stable condition and the man and another 7-year-old suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Students at Lynnhaven Elementary, where the children attend school, made cards and a banner today to send to the hospital. Meanwhile, school volunteers are preparing meals to share with the family over the next several weeks.

Counselors remain available for students who are grieving, school division spokeswoman Nancy Soscia said.

“They are just trying to continue on in the aftermath of this tragedy,” she said.

Police on Thursday confirmed that a pickup swerved around the front of a stopped school bus and crashed into the four as they walked down their driveway toward the bus stop.

Police also said they charged Sandra L. Hofstadler, 43, of the 3200 block of Club House Circle in Virginia Beach with driving under the influence, second offense; reckless passing of a school bus; and three counts of maiming as a result of driving while intoxicated.

She was held without bond and was arraigned today. A bond hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Thursday started quiet and cold in Princess Anne Plaza, neighbors said.

It’s a community of modest one-story homes and small children. Chain-link fences keep family dogs out of the street; in one front yard, a baby swing sways from a tree branch.

The three children are nice and respectful, neighbors said. They attend Lynnhaven Elementary School.

Police said the bus was going north on Paladin Drive. It carried 25 students, headed to Lynnhaven Elementary, said Nancy Soscia, a school division spokeswoman.

It stopped at Chester Street to pick up more riders. The driver pulled the bus up to the intersection and extended the safety gate, according to police.

About the same time, a pickup going east on Chester Street swerved around the front of the bus. The truck crossed the yard where the man and children were walking.

Tim Lasher lives up the street. On his way to work Thursday morning, he stopped near the same intersection. He said he watched as the blue pickup came around the corner.

“It’s something I don’t ever want to see again in my life,” he said.

Lasher called 911. A dispatcher asked whether the victims were responsive, so he touched them to check their pulses. The girl made a sound and the boy moved slightly. The father lay on the ground, injured and stunned, Lasher said.

“He didn’t know what happened. None of them knew what happened. None of them saw it coming,” he said.

Sentara spokesman Dale Gauding said one child was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

One child was taken to Sentara Virginia Beach General and later flown to Norfolk General by Nightingale Regional Air Ambulance. That child was expected to be transferred to Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters.

The man and other child were treated at Virginia Beach General.

Neighbors who watched the scene unfold said the woman who emerged from the driver’s seat of the pickup was stumbling and disoriented.

They said one of the neighbors took her keys to keep her from leaving the scene. She couldn’t walk in a straight line when police asked her to take a sobriety test, they said.

Drivers often speed down Chester Street, using it as a shortcut to avoid traffic lights and snarls at the nearby intersection with Interstate 264, Ruiz said.

“Every morning we’re screaming at people because they’re speeding,” she said. “Now this little boy is fighting for his life.”

Katherine Everett, Lynnhaven Elementary’s principal, visited the scene early and spent much of the day with family members at the hospital. Teachers and students were shaken by news of the injuries, she said.

The school division dispatched counselors to the school Thursday morning and met directly with students who were on the bus and may have witnessed the crash, Soscia said.

Police investigators spent the morning interviewing the bus driver and witnesses. Investigators took measurements and marked the scene with spray paint.

They photographed items in the Yancys’ yard, including a child’s backpack, a hat and a shoe.

“By law, you have to stop for the school bus,” said Officer Grazia Moyers, a police spokeswoman.

Hofstadler has been convicted of numerous traffic violations since 2003, according to online court records, including driving while intoxicated, speeding, and driving on a revoked license.

The records show a reckless-driving charge against her was scheduled to be heard in Virginia Beach General District Court on Wednesday, a day before the crash on Chester Street. In that case, she is accused of driving 57 mph in a 35-mph zone. That hearing was postponed, according to the records.

Hofstadler declined an interview from jail.

By dusk, the crash scene was cleared and police were gone. Lasher stood in his driveway as he told his story. The temperature dropped and his eyes grew wet.

“All I can do is pray for them,” he said.

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Pilot writers Cindy Clayton, Mike Hixenbaugh and Aaron Applegate contributed to this report.

Elisabeth Hulette, 757-222-5097, elisabeth.hulette@pilotonline.com