On August 5, Angela Short, 14, was standing at a CTA bus stop with her mother Kennetta Bradford at 79th Street and Racine Avenue in Auburn Gresham when an intoxicated Mercedes driver ran a stoplight and struck a Jeep, which veered onto the sidewalk. Angela was killed, and her mother suffered broken bones and a punctured lung.
Tragically, there was a very similar crash last Friday, August 26 in Englewood, only about two miles away, which injured seven people, including two people on foot who were hospitalized critical conditions. According to a bystander, the pedestrians were waiting for a bus, and at least one person suffered the dismemberment of a limb.
Police said at around 4:20 p.m. a 28-year-old man was driving a maroon GMC SUV north on Halsted Street when he ran a red light at 63rd Street. Both streets have five lanes at this location, which encourages speeding.
A 54-year-old woman driving west in a blue Honda sedan struck the driver's side of the GMC. The SUV careened onto the sidewalk at the northeast corner of the intersection, near a bus stop, struck a man and a woman, and crashed into the wall of Kennedy-King College's Washburn Culinary & Hospitality Institute.
According to police, the two struck pedestrians were transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.
Two children were taken to the U. of C.'s Comer Children's Hospital, and two other adults were taken to Stroger Hospital, according to a fire department spokesperson. The seventh inured person declined to be hospitalized.
I happened to be passing through the area about 20 minutes after the crash. Bystander Quinn McFadden said he heard the crash from around the corner and witnessed the immediate aftermath. He said he heard one of the motorists yelling at the other for allegedly using their phone while driving. Then he saw the pedestrians lying on the ground by the bus stop in grave condition, adding that he saw at least one limb amputation.
Drivers injuring and killing people at CTA bus is a disturbingly common phenomenon, which raises the question of whether more needs to be done to protect transit users from traffic violence. Here’s a list of recent fatality cases.
- In August 2022, Angela Short, 14, was standing at a bus stop when she was killed after a Mercedes driver ran a red at 79th Street and Racine Avenue in Auburn Gresham, striking a Jeep, which careened onto the sidewalk. Three other people were injured in the crash.
- In May 2022, a BMW driver fatally struck Concepcion Lopez, 82 while she waited for CTA bus in a shelter on the 2100 block of West Peterson Avenue in the West Ridge neighborhood.
- In December 2021, a 68-year-old woman was standing at a bus stop at 75th Street and St. Lawrence Avenue in Grand Crossing when a Jeep driver ran a red, struck another vehicle, and veered onto the sidewalk, pinning the senior against a building and killing her.
- In September 2021, a 52-year-old woman was killed while waiting for a bus in at 81st Street and Racine Avenue in Auburn Gresham, by a hit-and-run driver who ran a red and struck another vehicle.
- In August 2019, Myrna Logan, 81, and several other people were standing at a bus stop at Fullerton and Cicero Avenues when a driver struck them, killing Logan and injuring several others.
- Also in August 2019, an SUV driver slammed into a bus shelter at 61st Street and King Drive Woodlawn, killing Beverly Barney, 59, and injuring a 60-year-old woman.
- In June 2019, a police chase in Jeffery Manor ended with the death of Michael Jordan, 27, who was sitting in a CTA bus shelter on the 9900 block of South Van Vlissingen Road when the fleeing driver struck him.
- In April 2018, a speeding SUV driver struck and killed Janice M. Gilmore, 67, while she was waiting for a CTA bus at a shelter on Stony Island Avenue near 95th Street in South Deering, and injured five other people.
Sign the Safe Streets for All petition demanding action from your alderpersons, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and the Chicago Department of Transportation to address Chicago’s traffic fatality epidemic.
