Cops: Seat belts prevented school bus tragedy

Nine special education students and two adults may be alive today because they were wearing seat belts when their school bus tipped on its side Friday and slid into a cornfield near Sugar Grove, police said.

All 11 people were treated at area hospitals and released. Most of the children were able to go on to their school in Naperville, Kane County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Patrick Gengler said.

That probably wouldn't have been the case if the transportation company, Illinois Central School Bus, didn't require everyone aboard its vehicles to buckle up, Gengler said.

“Having those kids belted in was a big, big deal this morning,” he said. “We have a school bus leave the road on its side and (there are) no serious injuries. This could have been a much more serious tragedy if they weren't strapped in.”

Gengler said the accident was traumatic enough for the nine autistic students on board.

“It really was a sensory overload for these poor kids with all of the sirens and lights and commotion,” he said. “I can't say enough how lucky they were to be belted in.”

Illinois Central officials did not return multiple calls Friday.

Federal rules set into effect in October 2011 require seat belts be installed in new school buses weighing 5 tons or less. The smaller buses already were required to have lap belts, but not harness-style belts. There is no seat-belt requirement for larger buses but they can be voluntarily installed.

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said she stopped short of requiring seat belts for larger buses because it could limit the number of children who can squeeze into seats, forcing some children to travel in ways that aren't as safe.

The students were on their way Friday to Krejci Academy in Naperville, a school for nearly 130 students, ages 4 to 21, who have autism or other emotional, behavioral or developmental disabilities.

Rescue crews from the Big Rock Fire Protection District and Sugar Grove Fire Department responded to the crash on Granart Road between Camp Dean Road and Mary Drive near Big Rock and Sugar Grove.

Gengler said the bus was going east on Granart Road just before 8:10 a.m. when it left the roadway, rolled on its side in a drainage ditch and came to rest in the cornfield.

Three students and the bus driver were taken by ambulance to Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and six other students and an adult monitor were taken via another school bus to Delnor Hospital in Geneva.

Gengler said police still are interviewing witnesses and have received an explanation from the driver as to what may have caused the crash. No tickets have been issued.

Calls placed to Krejci Academy and to Naperville-based Little Friends Inc., which oversees the school, were not returned.