[cifnmedia] Injuries minor after SUV hits bus
- From: Sean & Kimberly Aaron <cifn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: CIFN LIST <cifnmedia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 08:31:22 -0800 (PST)
Friday, February 20, 2004
Injuries minor after SUV hits bus
By Vickie Speek Herald Writer
vspeek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MINOOKA — Fifteen Minooka Grade School students went to the hospital Thursday
afternoon as a precautionary measure after a SUV struck the bus in which they
were riding on McEvilly Road.
The driver of the SUV, Debra Brust of Shorewood, received a citation for
failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
None of the children was seriously injured in the accident, which occurred
about 3:30 p.m., shortly after bus number 4 had left Minooka Junior High School
to take students home.
About 30 students from kinder-garten through eighth grade were on the bus when
the accident occurred.
The vehicle was driven back to the junior high after the accident and students
who were uninjured were put on a different bus for the trip home.
Children who complained of being injured in any way were left on the bus,
immobilized on backboards and transported by ambulance to area hospitals.
Minooka Fire Chief Al Yancey said his department arrived at the junior high
school about 3:45 p.m. and immediately put in a call for assistance from other
area fire departments.
Ten ambulances and three squad units from Channahon, Morris, Troy, Elwood and
Plainfield responded.
Nine children were transported to Provena St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet
and six were taken to Morris Hospital in Morris.
“There is not a drop of blood, not a cut, this is just a precaution,”
Superintendent Ralph Wilhite said as he watched students being taken off the
bus.
Wilhite said the school had called all of the children’s parents to notify
them of the accident.
Many parents drove to the school, where they stood watching their children
being place on stretchers and loaded into ambulances.
“The rules are such that any student that they decide to transfer has to be
put on a stretcher, so it takes awhile,” Wilhite explained.
The last child was taken off the bus about 5 p.m.
“We took every precaution we possibly could to assure the children’s
safety,” Yancey said.
He praised fire department personnel.
“The majority of the people out there were volunteers who came in from their
jobs and daily lives,” he noted. “They are a good group of people — from
all those departments. I just can’t thank them enough for everything they did
today.”
Yancey also had kind words to say about school administration and the way the
manner in which the school and emergency personnel coordinated with each other.
“The number one priority is the children,” he said.
Sean A. Aaron (CIFN*1)
Central Illinois Fire Network
cifn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.geocities.com/central_illinois_firenet
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