Bears cut through Tri-State traffic jam

Chicago Bears players and coaches lived every rush-hour commuter’s dream on a jammed Tri-State Tollway when they went to catch a flight for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in London.

Four Lake County sheriff’s office squad cars, with lights flashing, escorted six Bears coach buses about 25 miles from the team’s Lake Forest headquarters to O’Hare International Airport on Thursday night.

Some vehicles in the bumper-to-bumper traffic were spotted moving aside for the buses and squad cars traveling on a middle lane near the toll road’s Golf Road exit.

Lt. Christopher Thompson said volunteer reserve deputies handled the escort duty, so no public money was used for personnel. He said escort requests are submitted to the highway division, reviewed and determined whether to be warranted.

“They asked, for security purposes, if we could provide the escort,” Thompson said of the Bears.

The escort accompanied the Bears’ buses to O’Hare’s international terminal for the London flight, he added.

Lake County sheriff’s police have provided escorts during the year for funerals, bicycle rides and military veterans returning home, Thompson said.