Visibly nervous and at times almost inaudible, teenager after teenager on Friday testified that Luka Wall Kang ran his car off the road onto the sidewalk and plowed into groups of students walking home from school.

Kang, 50, was ordered to stand trial on 12 counts of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony. Six counts involved actually hitting or grazing individuals, while the others were for allegedly aiming the vehicle at teens who jumped or somehow scrambled out of the way.

Kang will be arraigned Dec. 11.

Kang, who is from Sudan, sat listening intently to an interpreter who translated English testimony into his language, which is Nuer. Police questioned him following the incident, but there has been no explanation of why Kang allegedly plowed into the students.

The crash occurred May 6 as students were walking home near 5700 South and 4015 West after school at Kearns Junior High.

"I saw bodies flying up in the air," said Keily Spendlove, who said she "pushed off" the car as it advanced toward her.

Her friend Sabrina Perea said she saw two boys slammed up against a fence by the car and then saw it accelerate as it headed toward her and Keily. "He was looking straight at us. His hands were on the wheel."

Leonardo Flores, 15, was the first person to be struck. Leonardo said he was walking on the sidewalk with his friend Kolby Larsen when Kang's white car knocked him sideways into a fence.

Kolby testified that he was thrown up onto the hood, rolled off and heard the car's engine accelerate as it moved ahead, hitting other students. "When I looked up again, the car was upside down, and the cops were coming."

Tomas Perez, 13, also said he ended up on the car's hood where he struggled to get off and eventually fell onto the sidewalk. His brother, Lorenzo, raced over to help him. Tomas was "scraped up, and he didn't get up," Lorenzo testified.

Cesar Garcia, 15, said he was walking along when he suddenly got hit. The next thing he knew, "some lady was helping me up" from the ground, offering a cell phone so he could call his mother.

Calvin Kincaid, an adult who lives in the area, was doing yard work outside his house when the incident occurred. Kincaid said he ran into the street to try to get the car's license number and then, after the vehicle flipped over, went to the car to help the driver get out because the car was smoking.

Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy Kyle Wilkins, who was one of the first responders, described the overall scene as "pretty chaotic."

"There were several children on the ground. They were crying, some were bleeding," he said.

Wilkins found there were no major injuries involved, although some teens were taken to the hospital to get checked, and Kang also received medical treatment.

Police said Kang had no criminal record in Utah and no driver's license, was renting an apartment in Kearns and has no family here. A search of his car turned up an instruction booklet for writing in English, possibly in preparation for a citizenship exam.

e-mail: lindat@desnews.com