14 SCHOOL KIDS INJURED WHEN BUS STOPS QUICKLY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Fourteen schoolchildren were taken to a hospital with what authorities described as minor injuries after a school bus driver slammed on the brakes to avoid a car that ran a stop sign.

Carrying more than 50 kindergarten-through-sixth-grade pupils home from Quail Valley School, the Palmdale School District bus had stopped for a stop sign on northbound 55th Street East at Avenue R-8 and proceeded again when the driver saw a small car run the westbound Avenue R-8 stop sign, officials said.

``She slammed on the brakes and avoided a collision,'' said California Highway Patrol Officer David Stark. ``The car went in front of the bus. That stopping motion caused some children to receive minor injuries.''

The bus and the car did not make contact, and the car kept going, Stark said. The bus driver wrote down its license number.

Authorities said 14 children complained of pain after the stop. They were sent to Antelope Valley Hospital with what Los Angeles County firefighters described as minor injuries.

Another school bus was sent to pick up the other children, some of whom were picked up at the intersection by their worried parents.

Parent Hazel Lewis, who had a 10-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter on the bus, found out about the incident when she called the school to find out why the bus was late bringing home her children. It was their first day of school after moving from Los Angeles to Palmdale, she said.

``I was worried what happened to my kids, because it was getting late,'' she said.