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Woman inside home bus hit: It just pushed the bed across the room

No injuries were reported after a school bus collided with a car and crashed into the side of a house Thursday morning in Elk Grove Village.

The driver was the only occupant of the school bus. The crash occurred on the 100 block of Landmeier Road just after 7:30 a.m., police said.

Resident Megan Meagher was jolted awake when the bus rammed through the wall her bed was resting against.

"My head was against that wall, and it just pushed the bed across the room," she said. "I had no idea what happened. We were still on the bed when it came to a stop."

The bus left a hole about five feet in diameter in the side of the house and sheered off a portion of the roof.

None of the five people inside the house - four adults and a child - were injured. The village's building department was inspecting the damage to determine if the residents would be allowed to remain in the home.

Elk Grove Village Deputy Police Chief Mike Gaspari said the unidentified 26-year-old male bus driver was cited for failure to yield. Police did not identify the driver of the vehicle that was struck, either.

Gaspari said the bus, owned by First Student, was crossing Landmeier Road on northbound Holly Lane when it collided with an eastbound passenger vehicle. There are stop signs for northbound and southbound traffic, but vehicles traveling through that intersection on Landmeier are not required to stop.

Officials from First Student would not comment at the scene and did not return calls made to their Cincinnati headquarters.

The collision forced the bus into a yard on the east side of Holly Lane before it veered across the street and into the house on the west side.

Meagher said she hopes the village installs stop signs for traffic on Landmeier at the intersection, since it's the second time in a year a car has wound up in their yard or their house.

"We've got a high school down there and an elementary school up here, so there are cars every day trying to make it through that intersection too fast," she said.

The bus had departed Elk Grove Township Elementary School District 59's Ridge Family Learning Center just before the crash, according to district officials. The school is located about a half mile south of where the crash occurred.

Gaspari asked that anyone who might have witnessed the crash between the bus and passenger vehicle call police at (847) 357-4100.

  A school bus is towed after crashing into a house at the corner of Holly Lane and Landmeier Roads in Elk Grove Village Thursday morning. There were no children on the bus and no one in the house was injured. Jeff Knox/jknox@dailyherald.com
  Tire marks from the bus that crashed into a house on the corner of Landmeier Road and Holly Lane in Elk Grove Village can be seen from the house across the street. The bus lost control after colliding with a car. There were no children on the bus and no one in the house was injured. Jeff Knox/jknox@dailyherald.com
  Tire marks from the bus that crashed into a house on the corner of Landmeier Road and Holly Lane in Elk Grove Village can be seen from the house across the street. The bus lost control after colliding with a car. There were no children on the bus and no one in the home was injured. Jeff Knox/jknox@dailyherald.com
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