Garden Grove : Motorcyclist Dies in School Bus Accident

A Garden Grove man was killed Thursday afternoon after he ran a red light on his motorcycle and was hit by a small school bus in a Long Beach intersection, the California Highway Patrol said.

Tom Frank Cruz, 34, was rushed to Long Beach Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the 2:10 p.m. accident, CHP Public Information Officer Bruce Mulligan said.

None of the five children aboard the small van-type school bus nor the driver, 22-year-old Nataska West of Compton, was injured, Mulligan said. The children are students at Cubberly Elementary School in Long Beach, he said.

Mulligan said Cruz was riding his motorcycle eastbound along Willow Street at about 35 to 40 miles per hour when he entered the intersection at the Los Coyotes Diagonal. The van, which was southbound on Los Coyotes at about 30 miles per hour, hit the motorcycle broadside, the CHP officer said. West was not cited.