Apr 7, 2008 9:26 am US/Central
8 Students Hospitalized After Car Hits School Bus
HOMER GLEN, Ill. (STNG) ―
Eight students, ranging from grade school to high school age, were taken to area hospitals Monday morning after a car slammed into the back of a school bus in south suburban Homer Glen. One of the high school students who was in the car had to be airlifted to a trauma center.
The accident happened about 7:30 a.m. on 159th Street about three blocks west of Bell Road in Homer Glen, according to Homer Township Fire Protection District Chief Michael Schofield.
A car that was traveling "at a fairly high rate of speed," struck the back of the school bus, according to Will County Sheriff's police spokesman Pat Barry. The car then slid underneath the bus.
There were three high school students in the car, Schofield said. The driver was a female, Barry said. One of the passengers, a male, was trapped in the car and had to be extricated by emergency crews. He was airlifted to Saint James Hospital and Health Centers in Olympia Fields, Barry said. The driver and the other passenger were taken to Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet. They were considered to be in good condition, Schofield said. Schofield did not know the ages of the children who were in the car.
There were 48 students on board the Homer Glen Junior High School bus at the time of the crash, Barry said. The parents of five of those children wanted them to be checked out at a hospital, Barry said, and they were taken to Silver Cross, as a precautionary measure.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Will County Sheriff's police are investigating the accident.
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)