Freshman Killed by Bus at UIUC
 

Yesterday, a freshman was hit by a bus around 4 PM and didn't survive. The woman was a new member of Gamma Phi Beta. The investigation looked pretty thorough - the police blocked off the surrounding streets for a few hours, and the local and state police were there. There was another fatal bus-pedestrian accident last year at UIUC.
http://www.dailyillini.com/media/pap...-1005091.shtml

had trouble with the link. here's the story:

Sarah Emily Channick, freshman in LAS, died Thursday evening resulting from a collision with an MTD bus, which was on the 22 Illini route, at the intersection of Sixth Street and Chalmers Street.

Eyewitnesses said Channick, a Deerfield, Ill., native, was trying to cross the street on foot. The intersection, a four-way stop, is marked with two faded white crosswalk lines.

"I was a block away, and I saw the bus turning left onto Sixth," said Meghan Fitzgerald, sophomore in ACES. "I saw the bus stop and a bunch of commotion. Legs were hanging out from under the bus, and it was nauseating."

Lt. Gary Goula of the Champaign Fire Department said the bus driver and Channick were taken to Carle Hospital. Susan Zercher, a house officer at Carle, confirmed that Channick had passed away. The coroner did not return phone calls to confirm the time or cause of death. Officials did not release the name of the bus driver or the driver's condition.

Her father, Robert Channick, said during a phone interview "she was a wonderful kid who was very happy to be at (the University)." He added that she was thinking of going into marketing.

"She was just interested in meeting new people and exploring her options," he said. "She was blossoming."

Her family could be heard sobbing in the background during the phone interview.

Channick was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority house. Andrea Valencia, junior in LAS and president of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, said in a telephone interview "all the girls will truly miss her" and that the house was going through a very rough time. Weeping could be heard over the telephone from others.

Neither MTD nor the University would comment. Champaign police will release a statement this morning regarding the accident.

my heart goes out to her family and sisters.

i am so sorry to hear such bad news. her family and gamma phi beta will be in my thoughts and prayers.

That is awful. :( My thoughts go out to her family, friends, and Gamma Phi Beta.

Here's a link to the local news story:
http://www.news-gazette.com/localnew...m?Number=19065

Is doing a toxicolgy test routine on someone hit by a bus? If they think she was on a cell phone, what would prompt that? They do not mention potential use of any substance in the article....which if they suspected it and knowing, now, that she is Greek, I would think they'd jump on that immediately.

How sad for her family and her new sisters. What a difficult beginning to a year.

They seemed to be investigating the whole thing very thoroughly, so I'm doubting that there's any link between her being Greek and the toxicology screening. I'd guess that the accident happened around 4:30 PM. As of 6:30 or 7 PM, the road was still blocked off and there were local and state police on the scene investigating. So I think they're trying to gather all the evidence they can.

This sounds like just a total freak thing...the 22 stops every couple of blocks going up Green St., so it is not like it could have been going very fast or anything.

it is so sad to hear about this! her family and friends will be in my thoughts.

It sounded like it was in the middle of making a turn at the intersection of 6th and Chalmers - don't know if I caught which bus it was. It was one of the regular length ones, rather than the extra-long articulated ones that they use for campus routes.

:( :mad: :(

It sounds like the driver was at fault from this story.

Bus kills U. of I. student from Deerfield

By Courtney Flynn
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 1, 2005

A Deerfield teenager who recently began her freshman year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign died of injuries after she was struck by a bus while crossing a street on campus, officials said Friday.

Sarah Channick, 18, was walking west across 6th Street about 4:30 p.m. Thursday when a bus turning south onto 6th from Chalmers Street hit her, Champaign police said.

Channick was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Champaign, where she died about 5 p.m. of multiple traumatic injuries, police and Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup's office said.

"I could just see in the last month she was so full of optimism, so excited about her future," said her father, Robert, a freelance writer who frequently contributes to the Tribune. "It's all gone in a minute."

The driver of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus, Demetra Young, 22, of Urbana was issued a traffic citation for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, police said.

She also was taken to Carle Hospital because she was very upset, said Tom Costello, a spokesman for the transit agency.

She was not injured and was released Friday, he said.

Young was new on the job, recently finishing eight weeks of training as a bus driver, Costello said.

She had been driving buses on her own for about three weeks, he said. He did not know if she had any previous experience driving buses.

"This is certainly a nightmare for the family and a nightmare for us," Costello said. "We really do treasure our students ... and when parents send them down here we want them to be safe."

Here's another more in-depth story from the News-Gazette:

http://www.news-gazette.com/localnew...m?Number=19072

The traffic design on campus isn't great, and it sounds like the bus drivers are under pressure to keep their routes on schedule. So this isn't the first fatal bus-pedestrian accident here.

At least one of the stories said that she'd been talking on her cell phone when she was hit. I heard that the call had actually been to her father. :( How horrible for her family.

Last night, there was a vigil for her. Here are a couple of related stories.

http://www.dailyillini.com/media/pap...-1009546.shtml
http://www.dailyillini.com/media/pap...-1009514.shtml

I'm inclined to agree with the editorial - it sounds like a combination of badly designed traffic and pressure on poorly-trained drivers to keep their routes running on time.