Police still investigating Schaumburg crash that injured eight

Police are still investigating what caused a Ford Mustang to veer off the road in Schaumburg Sunday night and injure eight people.

Witnesses to the accident say it's unclear why the car went off the road around 9:30 p.m., plowing into spectators waiting for a fireworks show.

There were two males and two females inside the car, between 15 and 18 years old, said Schaumburg Police Sgt. John Nebl.

Schaumburg resident Kevin Olandese pulled up to the area right as a huge cloud of debris and smoke billowed toward the sky.

"I saw pieces of the car," he said. "You could tell it impacted a tree with a lot of force."

Witnesses say the car was a convertible and that it hit at least one tree with great impact.

Many residents lining Summit Drive for Monday morning's Septemberfest parade were talking about the crash.

"It was just a big old mess," said Kim Rafferty, of Carol Stream. "It just looked like a really bad accident with glass everywhere."

The car went off the road at Plum Grove Road, south of Schaumburg Road. Police say the vehicle was going north on Schaumburg Road before the crash.

The Mustang struck three females and one male on the sidewalk and came to rest after striking a tree.

Police say seven people were transported to local hospitals and one was in serious condition, with non-life threatening injuries.

Officials say it will take about a week to reconstruct the accident scene.

The area was closed until 3 a.m. Monday morning. It is still unknown if drugs, alcohol or speed was a factor. No changes were made to the last day of Septemberfest, Nebl said.

"I've worked for the police department for over 20 years and we've never had something like this happen at Septemberfest," said Nebl. "It is a really flukey thing for a car to end up on the sidewalk."

Even so, accidents like this do happen.

In 2000, a drunken driver hit a pick-up truck in Batavia, sending members of the family that was inside catapulted to the ground, injuring them. The accident was near a crowd of hundreds who were out watching fireworks and parked their cars nearby.

Since then, Batavia police have stepped up efforts to enforce a no-parking zone where people watch fireworks. To clear room for pedestrians, cops have stopped traffic directly after fireworks' shows.

In 1996, an out-of-control car struck a crowd in Wheeling watching Fourth of July fireworks.

The festivities turned tragic when a 1986 Buick Electra driven by an 83-year-old man raced out of its parking spot. The car struck a parking island, a tree, three cars and eight people, injuring seven and killing and 11-year-old boy.

Precautions in Wheeling have been taken so that it doesn't happen again, said long-time village official Judy Abruscato, now serving as the interim village president.

For annual parades, there are volunteers on hand to quickly catch people who run in the middle of the street, she said.

When it comes to fireworks, the firefighters, police and local police academy volunteers are all out there to watch the crowd.

Since the 1996 incident, parking is no longer allowed near fireworks spectators, she said.

Anybody who witnessed the Schaumburg crash this weekend is urged to call police at (847) 882-3534.