9 Kids Hospitalized After School Bus Crash
CHICAGO (STMW -- Nine Chicago Public Schools students were taken to hospitals with minor injuries Thursday after their school bus sideswiped a beam on their way to school, according to Chicago Police.
But the driver apparently didn't report the accident right away, the father of one of the children aboard told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The students were riding to A.N. Pritzker School, 2009 W. Schiller St., when the accident happened, parent Vladimir Uzelac said.
The bus was westbound on Lake Street when it sideswiped a CTA support beam while turning northbound onto Damen Avenue at 9:15 a.m., police News Affairs Officer Jose Estrada said.
The bus driver drove to the school and dropped off the children, Estrada said. School officials called 911 to report the accident and request medical attention for the students.
Uzelac said his daughter told him the driver kept going after hitting the beam but didn't tell anyone at the school about the incident. When school officials learned what happened, they took action, pulling her from her Spanish class and putting her and the other children into ambulances. Her parents were called after 10 a.m., Uzelac said.
"It was strange that they didn't report it right when it happened," said the father of a first grader, upset about the delay.
Nine children were taken to hospitals as a precaution, some with minor injuries, Estrada said. Five were taken to Norwegian American Hospital and four to Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers.
It was not yet clear whether the driver would be cited, Estrada said.
The bus wasn't piloted by its usual driver, said Uzelac, who accompanies his daughter to her stop every day.
Uzelac said his daughter chose to return to school after her trip to the hospital. She wasn't badly hurt.
"She said her neck kind of snapped a little bit. She was jostled back and forth. Hopefully there isn't any kind of whiplash. I don't know how hard he hit."
