A bus carrying a junior varsity girls basketball team in Illinois crashed with a semitrailer truck Wednesday night as the bus was returning from a basketball game.
The accident, which took place near Downs, Ill., claimed the lives of two adults in the accident, while eight of the 11 students on the bus were transported to nearby hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, per the Associated Press.
The team hails from Normal (Ill.) West High School and had been participating in a game in Champaign against Champaign Central High School. The Pantagraph, an Illinois newspaper, reported that the team’s coach Steve Price was in fair condition Thursday after suffering multiple broken bones in the crash, while the bus driver remained in critical condition.
The two deceased have been identified as girls basketball volunteer Charlie Crabtree, a 72-year-old Normal resident, and the driver of the truck, Ryan E. Hute of Delmar, Iowa.
According to police the semi was traveling in the wrong direction on Interstate-74 Wednesday night, and an investigation is ongoing.
“People care about each other in this school and this community, and I think they just wanted to be together during this horrible tragedy,” McClean County Unit 5 schools spokesperson Dayna Brown told the Pantagraph and other assembled press Wednesday night. “We can’t thank this community enough for their support. We will be sure that everyone is supported in anything they need.”