Sunday, May 16, 2010

Citation filed after CTA bus crashes into school in Humboldt Park


May 11, 2010

Twelve people were injured -- two critically -- when a CTA bus which a witness said was trying to avoid an SUV crashed into a school building in the Humboldt Park neighborhood Monday afternoon on the West Side.

About 4:05 p.m., "a westbound No. 66 (Chicago Avenue) bus was involved in a collision with a car that resulted in the bus striking the building," CTA spokeswoman Wanda Taylor said.

There were 12 passengers on the bus, in addition to the driver, she said.

An EMS Plan II, which sends at least 10 ambulances, was called for the accident on the 3600 block of West Chicago Avenue.

Richie Driver, 45, was walking to a neighborhood store when he witnessed the accident.

Two other vehicles -- a car and a black SUV -- were involved in the crash, he said. Apparently the car was going too slow for the SUV driver, so the SUV sped up and got into the lane the bus was traveling in. "The bus driver tried to keep from hitting him, and she (the bus driver) wound up hitting another car," then striking the building, Driver said.

The SUV driver tried to drive away, according to Driver, but wound up stopping about a block up the street because of apparent radiator damage. The SUV "was steaming," Driver said.

James Vaughn, 74, of the 600 block of North Leamington Avenue, the driver of the SUV, was cited with following too close, according to police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.

The scene on the street following the crash was not chaotic, Driver said, though "we thought the bus had run over some people." When it was determined no one had been run over, bystanders ran to the bus and tried to help out passengers, but police and fire crews arrived quickly to take control.

A total of 12 people were taken to hospitals, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quention Curtis. Two were in serious to critical condition, nine were fair to serious, and one was good to fair, he said.

One of those in critical condition was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and the other in critical was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, according to police News Affairs. None of the injured were children, according to police reports.

The building is the Rowe-Clark Math and Science Academy, according to an online directory. There was no one in the building at the time, according to unconfirmed dispatch reports.

Both westbound and eastbound No. 66 buses were rerouted around the scene following the crash, but the reroute was ended by about 7 p.m., according to CTA spokeswoman Katelyn Thrall.

No comments: