An accident involving a school bus and a semi left nine students injured in north suburban Beach Park Wednesday afternoon, police said.
The accident happened just before 3:04 p.m. on Green Bay Road near Major Avenue, The Lake County Sheriff's office said. The nine children hurt in the crash suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to Vista Hospitals in Waukegan in good condition, the school and police said.
There were 57 people on the bus at the time of the crash, including kindergarten through fifth grade students. The school bus was taking elementary school students from Kenneth Murphy Elementary School.
The majority of students who were on the bus were returning to the school following the crash and will need to be picked up by an adult, school officials said.
The bus was sitting in traffic behind a semi when another semi driven by Milos Otojic, 55, of the 900 block of Clark Drive, Gurnee, failed to stop and struck the rear of the school bus, police said. The school bus was then pushed forward into the other semi.
Ostojic has been charged with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, no proof of insurance, and no driver’s license on person. He is due back in Round Lake Beach Branch Court on Feb. 8.
