Parents of students injured a year and a half ago when a school bus overturned south of Santa Fe are suing the school district and the bus driver for alleged negligence.

Leonard Serrano was driving the bus into town from Cañada de los Alamos on the morning of Nov. 19, 2007, when he ran off County Road 67C, also known as Two Trails Road.

According to news accounts, 12 of the 27 students on the bus were taken to the hospital, and all but one 14-year-old Capshaw Middle School student were released the same day. He was released the next day.

In the complaint filed in state District Court on Tuesday by lawyer Scott Vorhees, the parents of nine of those students charge that Serrano was negligent and the school district was negligent in supervising and training him. They seek unspecified damages.

According to the complaint, the bus veered off the road to the right, straddling the roadway and a steep-sided drainage ditch until it hit a culvert and flipped.

"As the bus tipped over, the children inside flew out of their seats falling to the right with some children landing on top of others, and/or hitting the right side seats and interior bus compartment," the complaint says.

It says an accident report prepared by Bill Ritch of the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department concluded that when Serrano turned left to try to get the bus back on the roadway, the undercarriage caught on the pavement, causing the bus to flip onto its right side. "Serrano should have known that this type of evasive action in such a large bus on a two lane roadway could and did lead to his losing control of the bus," Ritch wrote, according to the complaint.

Serrano did not return a message seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the Santa Fe Public Schools said school officials had not yet been served with the complaint and could not comment.

Plaintiffs are Ernesto Prada Sr., guardian of Ernesto Prado Jr.; Amanda Garcia, guardian of Jerome and Jolene Cross; Vincent and Barbara Ratliff, guardians of Mitchell Ratliff; Mark and Vanessa Prada, guardians of Alexandra Prada; Fernando and Evone Prada, guardians of Christina Prada; Louis Bachicha and Sonya Watts, guardians of Santi Bachicha, and Suzanne Valdez, guardian of Vivian and Cruz Valdez.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.