Dump Truck Driver Will Be Cited in Crash With School Buses: Cops

LIBERTYVILLE, IL — Seventeen people, including children, were taken to area hospitals after a dump truck and three school buses collided on Route 137 at River Road near Libertyville Thursday morning. At the time of the collision, 144 counselors and campers from the North Suburban YMCA day camp, ranging in age from 5 to 14 years old, were on board the buses. All of the children were evaluated at the scene, police said.

None of the injuries were considered life-threatening and as of Thursday night, only three remained hospitalized, Lake County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Christopher Covelli told Patch on Friday morning. The rest had been treated and released.

Tracy Coleman, the mother of two camp counselors who were on board one of the buses involved in the crash, said the injuries involved cuts from shattered glass, as well as back and neck pain.

A preliminary investigation shows the crash occurred at about 10:45 a.m. when the three loaded buses were heading west on Route 137 and began to slow for traffic. A 1998 Mack Truck pulling a trailer loaded with landscaping materials was driving behind the buses and was not able to slow down in time, authorities said.

The dump truck collided with the bus in front of it, which lead to that bus colliding with the bus in front of it and then colliding with the final bus, according to police. The driver of the dump truck, a 44-year-old Elgin man, was not injured.

No citations had been issued as of Friday morning, but the dump truck driver would receive a ticket for failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash, Covelli said.

Coleman, a mother to two junior counselors on the bus, said her children texted her about the crash after it happened. Coleman lives in Northbrook but works in Vernon Hills and said she jetted over to the scene to check on her daughters.

Both, she said, were not injured.

"They were definitely shaken up but calm," she wrote in an email to Patch. Other children were crying and there were several ambulances at the scene and paramedics checking out children. Emergency personnel and YMCA staffers were there as well, talking with children who were visibly shaken up following the collision.

Coleman lauded YMCA Camp Director Kathy Fielding and the emergency personnel at the scene for doing an "incredible job" keeping everyone calm and managing a chaotic situation.

"It was a super crazy scene," she said. "When I left there were probably a dozen ambulances and many kids getting looked at for neck and back pain and some cuts as there was glass everywhere," she added.

The collision shut down Route 137 from Route 21 to St. Mary's Road in Libertyville. Following the crash, authorities requested parents not respond to the scene. Those who were not transported to the hospital have been transported back to the YMCA camp, police said.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office is at the scene and the crash remains under investigation.

Patch will update with more information once it’s released.