Car Causes Accident, Strikes Pedestrians
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A witness described a "surreal" scene Friday afternoon as a car turned the wrong way at a busy Loop intersection, caused an accident, then reversed and struck two pedestrians.
An 80-year-old woman was driving south in the northbound lanes of the 200 block of North Michigan Avenue at 5:13 p.m. when she struck a vehicle, which was then pushed into another vehicle, police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien said.
Two people were hospitalized, one in serious to critical condition, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado said.
Both victims were pedestrians -- a 35-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, O'Brien said.
George Schaefer, a consultant for Sun-Times Media, was in a cab on Lake Street preparing to cross Michigan when a red car, traveling at a high rate of speed, crossed the median and attempted to go south in the northbound lanes of Michigan.
The red car struck a car head-on in the northbound lane, then took off in reverse, striking at least two pedestrians and another vehicle, and may have struck a CTA bus, said Schaefer, a northwest Indiana resident.
"Two people were struck and I saw one of them get up and try to help the other, but the second stayed on the ground," Schaefer said.
Rosado said paramedics were called to a report of pedestrians struck by a car and took two people to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, one in good to fair condition, and one in serious to critical condition.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
