Seven young people on their way to a long-awaited Bruce Springsteen concert at Soldier Field were killed Friday when their 1975 Cadillac was struck by a CTA articulated bus and crushed beneath it.
”What a waste,” said the distraught uncle of one of the victims after going to the Fishbein Institute of Forensic Medicine to identify his nephew`s body. ”They were a good bunch of kids, typical teenagers who wanted to go to a concert.”
Even though many witnesses said he was not at fault, police charged the bus driver, David Johnson, 47, of University Park, with seven counts of reckless homicide and with improper lane usage and driving too fast for conditions.
The accident occurred about 1:30 p.m. in the southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive, south of Soldier Field and about 100 yards north of McCormick Place. The driver of the auto apparently was trying to enter a parking lot. More than 50 people on the bus were injured.
As Johnson tried to keep his vehicle under control, the ponderous, 36,000-pound bus rode up the back of the Cadillac, shearing off its top, and dragged it approximately 100 feet before coming to rest on a grassy area east of the drive.
”It happened so fast,” said Kenneth Reingruher, 49, who was directing traffic at the Chicago Park District lot. ”The bus driver did everything he could. I ran over to help, but I walked back. I couldn`t look at it. That bus tore through that car like it didn`t exist.”
The victims, all from the Joliet area, ranged in age from 15 to 21.
They were identified by police as Bette Cipolle, 21, of 900 Oneida St., Joliet; her boyfriend, Daniel Dow, 21, of 608 Ca Crest Dr., Shorewood; Dow`s sister, Kimberly, 16; Dean LaBarbera, 15, of 817 Oneida St.; Kristin Behrens, 15, of 1202 Oneida St.; Jennifer Fredrickson, 16, of 302 Maple Lane, Shorewood; and Rosann Sula, 20, of 511 Cornelia St., Joliet.
The bus was one of the CTA`s 145 three-axle articulated buses. Johnson, who will mark his 25th year with the CTA on Aug. 22, has been known as ”a careful, conscientious driver,” said Donald Yabush, a CTA spokesman.
Police and witnesses gave conflicting accounts of how the accident occurred.
Cmdr. David E. Coffey of the police department`s traffic enforcement unit said police interviews with witnesses and the investigation at the scene indicated the bus was going 40 to 45 miles an hour at the time of the crash. Although that was at or below the posted speed limit, Coffey said Johnson
”should have been going slower” because the traffic there was heavier than normal.
Coffey said the green Cadillac belonging to the Cipolle family was in the far left lane when the southbound No. 6 Jeffery Express changed lanes and hit it in the rear.
Witnesses on the bus and at the parking lot said the accident happened when the car swerved into the left lane in front of the bus in an effort to reach the parking lot.
The driver of the Cadillac ”was cutting across in front of the bus, and the bus tried to miss him, but instead they collided and the bus went on top of it,” said Betty Williams, 69, of 7321 S. South Shore Dr., who was sitting on the bench seat in the bus across from Johnson and was looking out the front window when the accident took place.
Johnson ”didn`t have time to stop,” said Dori Chandler, 28, of 5330 S. Blackstone Ave., an overseas telephone operator who was taking the bus home from work. ”That car had slowed down to turn into the lot. We all saw the car cross in front of the bus.”
Lee Stephenson, 41, was collecting parking fees at the lot when the accident took place within a few yards of him.
”The bus was southbound in the lane nearest the curb and the car was in the next lane over, about 5 or 10 feet in front of the bus,” Stephenson said. ”The driver of the car looked over and decided to turn into the lane near the curb. I guess he turned without looking over at the bus.
”I couldn`t believe what I was seeing. The bus driver, he didn`t have time to do anything.
”After it happened, I ran over to see whether there was anything I could do. Once I reached the front of the bus, though, I saw that half of the car was underneath.
”When they took them out of the car, their arms and legs were limp. They were bent in ways you don`t normally see.
”There was no screaming. I think it happened too suddenly. I don`t think any of the people in the car knew what happened.
”After a while, the people in the bus started screaming. They seemed to be in shock, including the driver. I was watching him. The first thing he did after he stopped was throw up both hands, as if to say, `Oh my God, what have I done?` and then he grabbed his head.”
Later Friday, as rock fans continued to swarm into Soldier Field for the Springsteen concert, relatives of the crash victims went or were taken to the Fishbein Institute to identify the bodies.
One woman, escorted by police, entered the building sobbing uncontrollably.
Kimberly Dow was to enter her junior year at Joliet West Township High School this fall, said Paula Tatroe, a friend and next-door neighbor.
”Kim was real excited about going to the concert,” Tatroe said. ”Danny didn`t want to go, but Kim did and he was taking her.”
Bill Bishop, a Joliet firefighter and family friend, said Dan Dow was a senior at the University of Illinois in the school of engineering.
”All the kids were looking very forward to going to this concert. They stood in line for hours to get the tickets,” Bishop said.
Another neighbor, Lucille Eberhart, 38, said Kimberly and Dan ”were both very smart in school. Very, very bright. He was our paperboy when he was in grade school. After he went to high school, he couldn`t do it anymore, and she took over the route.”
On Friday morning, Jennifer Fredrickson played tennis with Robert Guitierrez, a neighbor.
”She was in taking tennis lessons from me,” he said. ”We had a real good time. It was the last day of our group lesson. I really had no idea she was going to the concert. We were talking about what her plans for school were this fall.”
Joann Weber, 52, a neighbor of crash victim Rosann Sula, remembered Sula as a hard-working girl who was studying in the pharmacy school at the University of Illinois Chicago.
”Her father was a pharmacist, and I think she wanted to follow in her father`s footsteps,” Weber said. ”She was a great girl.”
In the Oneida Street neighborhood where three of the victims had lived, residents held a tearful vigil.
Bette Cippole, Dan Dow`s girlfriend, also was a student in the pharmacy school at the University of Illinois Chicago, Bishop said. The couple had been dating through college.
Like Sula, Cippole worked during the summer with her father, a pharmacist. Neighbors said she had been a popular student at Joliet Township Central High School, where she had been connected with the pom-pon corps, the student council and the National Honor Society.
Dean LaBarbera would have been a junior at Joliet Catholic High School this fall. He was a good athlete and popular with the girls, said Vince Irby, 14, a neighborhood friend.
Kristin Behrens also was interested in sports. Her mother, Darlene Gersch, showed a reporter her bedroom, which was decorated with religious articles and baseball memorabilia.
”This is her life,” Gersch said, sweeping her hand toward the Bible and the souvenirs, which included the girl`s pride and joy, a baseball bat autographed by Cubs catcher Jody Davis.
”She had the growing pains of a teenage girl,” Gersch said, ”but when things got tough she had her Bible.
”She`s okay now.”
