School bus plows into house, ends up in living room in north Chicago suburb
SKOKIE, Ill. (CBS) -- Two brothers were forced out of their house in Skokie Thursday afternoon, after a school bus slammed right through the front wall.
Skokie police said they were called at 4:28 p.m. to the scene in the 8600 block of Crawford Avenue in Skokie, near Greenleaf Street.
The Alltown school bus had first hit a sport-utility vehicle while headed south on Crawford Avenue, police said. The crash also damaged two unoccupied parked cars, police said.
The school bus then left the roadway , crossed the median, and plowed right into a house on the block. The bus was left lodged in the front yard of the house, with the front partially slammed through the wall.
The homeowner, Hamza, said he was about 10 feet away from where the bus hit when it came barreling through.
"I was just working. I was working from home today, and I just was working on some stuff and heard a loud bang – and I thought it was thunder," said Hamza, who lives in the house with his brother. "And then everything – the light went off, and I came downstairs and saw this thing inside my house."
The damage was so severe that the inside of Hamza's living room was visible to the street. The house looked as if it had been hit by a wrecking ball – with a wide gap from floor to ceiling on the side wall.
"The structure hit some big bus - it's a school bus. The school bus hit, and it was a loud boom," said Hamza. "I wouldn't call it thunder. It was like a blast. You feel it to your core. I felt it."
Several other nearby houses were also damaged in the trail of destruction the bus left.
Witness Nikki Kelsay said she was also driving north on Crawford Avenue at the time, when she saw the school bus slam into the house.
"All I saw was the bus cut over this median and drive straight into this house – straight into it," said Kelsay, "and I slammed on my brakes because I saw it coming this way – and that's all I saw. But it was terrifying."
The bus driver was the only person on board. Kelsay said she was one of the first to help him.
"Luckily, no kids were on the bus," she said. "We helped the driver get off the bus. A couple men came and helped him get off. It looked like he was in shock."
"It was a relief, seeing that everyone was fine – of course, it was just the driver," said Hamza, "but no one actually physically got hurt."
The bus driver was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. One party in the traffic crash – police did not specify whether it was the driver of the bus or the SUV – was ticketed for improper lane usage.
Late Thursday, Hamza's home was already boarded up. Hamza said structural engineers will inspect the house, but in the meantime, he will be forced to stay with family.
