A Chicago Transit Authority driver lost consciousness behind the wheel of the No. 76 Diversey bus around 9 a.m. Friday morning, crashing in to as many as 20 cars along Kedzie Ave.
CTA spokeswoman Lambrini Lukidis told DNAinfo Chicago the driver suffered some kind of medical emergency about 8:40 a.m., causing him to pass out at the wheel. Lukudis initially said as many as a dozen cars were mangled in the wreck, while CBS Chicago reported as many as 20 cars may have been hit.
Cars were dented, crushed and nearly completely squashed. One car was hit so hard it rolled right on top of the vehicle in front of it.
“Ten years in the business, and we’ve never seen anything like this,” Ariel Gonzalez of Red Line Towing said to CBS. Gonzalez estimated the damage to the cars alone to be more than $250,000; the bus also damaged a nearby laundromat.
The driver and a passenger aboard the bus were both injured and taken to area hospitals in fair condition, reports ABC Chicago.
Marie Williams, 36, was among the car owners who came outside to the monster truck rally-like scene. She told DNA after seeing her 2000 Mazda Protege flattened, she said, "It looks like a movie scene outside."
Like other car owners who had their vehicles smashed, Williams said she'd have plenty of paperwork in her future, but isn't so bothered when acknowledges she and her young daughter, as well as other pedestrians, were unharmed.
"The car can be replaced," Williams told DNA. "A life can't."
The driver reportedly missed the turn to go east on Diversey and crunched a row of cars parked on Kedzie as it careened northbound. The Tribune said CTA officials are investigation the matter.