O’Hare International Airport was the scene of a grisly accident on Tuesday, November 19th, when a bus dedicated to shuttling airport passengers to and from one of the local hotels struck a female pedestrian. The pedestrian was hospitalized and was reportedly alert following the incident.
The incident took place in the middle of a busy afternoon at O’Hare, outside of the area where passengers are able to claim their bags and find ground transportation on the lower level.
The Chicago Fire Department responded to the scene, and reported that the bus was identified as belonging to the Intercontinental Hotel. After striking the woman the bus apparently dragged her for a distance of approximately twenty feet before coming to a stop. The accident was witnessed by both passengers and motorists as well as other shuttle bus drivers, all of whom ran to try to assist the victim.
Approximately twenty witnesses proceeded to lift the bus up off of the woman in order to alleviate some of the pain that she was enduring. One witness, Lionel Muhammed who is the driver of another shuttle bus, said that witnesses could say that the shuttle bus axle was digging into her side and causing injury.
Although there has been no official comment from police regarding claims made by any of the witnesses to the incident, many stated that the pedestrian was not paying attention to where she was going and had been speaking on a mobile telephone device at the time of the accident. Some said that she was looking in the direction away from the bus, while others indicated that she had not used one of the designated walkways that are indicated as being for pedestrians.
The bus driver , Jamie Florez, was cited by Chicago police for having struck the woman.
Witnesses to the accident and those hearing the news expressed surprise that this type of injury doesn’t happen more frequently. They said that between pedestrians being preoccupied by gathering luggage, finding their cars or transportation and talking on cell phones and the various drivers rushing to pick up passengers, very few people are paying adequate attention to safety.
There are no reports as to whether the bus was carrying passengers at the time or whether any other injuries occurred as a result of the accident.