Vehicle crashes at school campus

A car crash near the playground at Eastbluff Elementary School hit close to home for many students and parents Tuesday morning.

Tire marks leading to a wrecked white Toyota sport utility vehicle, parked half on the street and half on a sidewalk where many parents walk their children to school, greeted students arriving around 8 a.m.

The car careened through an area in front of the school that bustles with children on school days.

“If it would have happened just 15 minutes later, what would have happened would be shocking,” said Beverly McMullen, whose 7-year-old daughter is in second grade at Eastbluff.

At 7:50 a.m., just minutes before the campus filled with students, Kurt Eric Reiter, 44, of Newport Beach, was heading west on Vista del Oro in a white Toyota 4Runner when he swung across traffic for an unknown reason and sideswiped a Honda Civic parked under a tree in front of the elementary school, police said.

Reiter’s 4Runner then jumped the curb, traveled up a grass embankment, and narrowly missed a school billboard announcing back-to-school night Tuesday evening before coming to a rest just before hitting a tree.

Michelle Harr, whose 7-year-old daughter attends Eastbluff, said, “I saw the sirens as I drove up and told her to go right inside.”

Witnesses said a school custodian detained Reiter until police arrived.

“There were only two children here at the time of the wreck, and they were safe behind a barricade,” said Eastbluff Elementary School Principal Gina Cataldo.

The car came to rest near the school playground, which is behind a tall chain-link fence.

Newport Beach police arrested Reiter on suspicion of driving under the influence. He was taken to Newport Beach City Jail on $10,000 bail, Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

Melanie Scullin, who lives across the street from the school, said it took a moment for her to process that her silver Honda Civic had been totaled when she walked outside her house after hearing a loud crash shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The left side of her car was mangled beyond repair, she said.

“It sounded like a gunshot at first. I saw the car up on the curb and my car, and it didn’t register at first,” Scullin said. “This is such a busy street, we have a lot of teenagers and senior citizens that drive through here, and we need speed bumps.”

The crash was not Reiter’s first offense. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to charges of possession of a controlled substance.

He also has multiple traffic violations for speeding and failure to yield at a stop sign.

The accident reminded some parents of Eastbluff teacher Candace Tift, who was killed by an alleged drunken driver in August 2006 while she was riding her bicycle along West Coast Highway.

“If it would have been a few minutes later, then that terrible tragedy would have been repeated on a much larger scale,” said Victor Currie, who has a first-grader enrolled at Eastbluff.