Boy hit by bus in Algonquin

A 7-year-old boy was taken to the hospital Monday morning after his leg was run over by a bus at an Algonquin school, authorities said.

The boy suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including broken bones, according to Community Unit District 300 officials.

It took place around 7:50 a.m., 10 minutes before the start of classes at Neubert Elementary School, where the boy is a student, authorities said.

"The bus in question had discharged its passengers, and the victim was one of those students that got off that bus," District 300 safety officer Gary Chester said. "As he was walking toward the back of the bus, headed toward the school, somehow he wound up in the roadway. The bus began to roll forward and the rear tires ran over the student's leg."

The boy was briefly trapped under the bus before the driver, who was on the bus but not at the wheel, backed up the vehicle and adults at the scene pulled the boy out from under the bus, Chester said.

School staff hurried other students into the building while the school nurse treated the boy for injuries to his leg and foot, authorities said. Algonquin/Lake in the Hills firefighters took the boy to Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin. He was later taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

Authorities are still investigating why the bus rolled forward.

"We're not certain at this point," Algonquin Deputy Police Chief Ed Urban said. "We're working with state police."

Police have interviewed the bus driver and witnesses and are now awaiting the results of an inspection of the bus by state police, Urban said.

No charges have been filed, and no citations have been issued so far.

Per the policy of Durham School Services, the contractor that runs District 300's buses, the female driver of the bus will not be transporting students until the investigation is complete, Chester said.

Letters went home with Neubert parents about the incident, and the district brought in additional counselors for friends of the student and witnesses to the incident, District 300's safety officer said.

Meanwhile, Neubert Principal Darlene Warner visited the family of the second-grader at the hospital, Chester said.

Monday's incident was the second injury involving a bus at an Algonquin school this year. About 15 students were taken to the hospital with minor injuries in September, when one bus rear-ended another in the parking lot of Westfield Community School.