Bus, van collide at Steel Yard in Gary
By Carole Carlson ccarlson@post-trib.com/648-3154 May 30, 2012 3:56PM
Terry Burkhart of School City of Hobart carries vehicle parts to a tow truck after a crash between a School City of Hobart bus and a Prompt van outside the Steel Yard at 5th Avenue and Virginia in Gary, Ind. Wednesday May 30, 2012. According to police, two people were taken to the hospital with very minor injuries. There were no children on the bus at the time of the crash. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media
Updated: July 6, 2012 9:14AM
GARY — A collision outside the U.S. Steel Yard between a School City of Hobart school bus and a Prompt Ambulance medical van sent three people to the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
Both the van driver and school bus driver were traveling east on 5th Avenue, near Virginia Street, in front of the RailCats baseball stadium.
Van driver Armond Stuckey said he was in the far north lane and the bus was in the middle lane.
“All of a sudden, it was just ‘bam!’ She dragged us three to four car lengths, I was blaring the horn, that’s the only way she stopped,” he said.
No school children were on the bus. Driver Cindy Benson was en route to pick them up from the RailCats game. Hobart sent six busloads of students to the game.
Gary Police Cpl. Gabrielle King said the crash was still under investigation.
Other school bus drivers said Benson’s bus was in the middle lane because the far north lane was closed off by barricades.
Benson turned north onto Virginia Street, dragging the medical van until she stopped in the middle of Virginia Street.
A Prompt Ambulance arrived and took three injured Prompt employees to the hospital.
King said police officers at the scene described the injuries as minor.
