According to Indiana State Police, a semi-truck crashed into a school bus carrying a hockey team from Chicago, Illinois. At least 16 people were injured.
Warsaw police department.
A semi-truck ran a red light and crashed into a school bus carrying the school’s hockey team, injuring at least 16 people, some critically, according to Indiana State Police.
The team, which had flown in from Chicago for a hockey tournament, was on its way to a Warsaw hotel after dinner when an 18-wheeler collided with the back of a school bus just after 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, according to the Warsaw Police Department. – says the press release.
The bus overturned on its side, and at least one teenager was thrown from the impact, according to the release.
There were 23 students and two coaches on board, all from Ignatius the Rev, a Catholic school in Chicago. Of the 16 injured, three are in a “very serious” condition, police said.
Law enforcement officers found a semi-truck that stopped in a ditch on the side of the road.
Police were already looking for the semi-trailer just minutes before the crash after receiving calls that the tractor-trailer “was swerving into other lanes and traveling at an excessive rate of speed,” according to the release. But before they could reach the truck, it crashed into the bus.
Police suspect that the semi driver, a 58-year-old resident of Brooklyn, New York, was driving under the influence of alcohol.
Police said there was a “strong odor” of alcohol in the cab of the semi and from the driver himself, whose speech was slurred.
The driver failed multiple field sobriety tests, the release said. The 58-year-old man refused to submit to a chemical test, but officers obtained a warrant allowing them to test blood taken from the man by hospital staff.
The district attorney’s office is facing criminal charges against the driver, including driving while intoxicated and causing serious bodily injury, according to the release.
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