Trucker charged with more than two dozen felonies in Warsaw crash with high school bus
WARSAW — The driver of a semitrailer that collided with a bus full of Chicago-area high schoolers in Warsaw has been charged with more than two dozen counts of drunk driving and criminal recklessness.
Investigators say Victor Santos, 58, was swerving across U.S. 30 and ran a red light before his truck hit a school bus, injuring 16 junior varsity hockey players from St. Ignatius College Prep, who were in town for a hockey tournament. Three of the students were critically injured in the immediate aftermath of the crash, as police said one student was ejected from the bus.
In total, Santos, who is from Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged with four counts of causing serious injury while driving under the influence and 22 counts of criminal recklessness. Police said the 26 total counts correspond to the 26 people who were on the bus at the time of the crash.
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"Some of these injuries are extremely serious and we continue to pray for the full recovery of all the students, coaches and the bus driver who unfortunately fell victim to these crimes," the Warsaw Police Department said in a statement.
The crash occurred a little after 8 p.m. on Saturday as the truck struck the St. Ignatius bus at the intersection of U.S. 30 and Center Street on the western edge of Warsaw, officials said. The truck, police say, was going southwest on U.S. 30, and other drivers had called in to 911 to alert law enforcement that it appeared to be swerving in between lanes. Seconds before the crash, the truck failed to stop at a red light, Warsaw police said.
The collision caused the school bus to turn over on its side, and police say one student was thrown from the bus because of the crash. The semitrailer eventually came to a stop in a ditch a ways past the intersection. Two of the students who were critically injured were taken by ambulance to a hospital in Fort Wayne. Other team members were taken to Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital. Most of the students are 15 years old, police said.
Police quickly began to treat the crash as an OWI investigation based on the 911 calls prior to the collision and the alleged odor of alcohol officers detected on the truck driver. Santos failed sobriety tests, but did not consent to a blood draw, police said. Investigators eventually got a warrant to perform a blood draw, the results of which are still pending. Police also claim the collision was captured on surveillance video, which confirmed witness accounts that the truck ran a red light.
Though three students were critically injured, officials have said that all students were either in stable condition or released from the hospital as of Monday. St. Ignatius, a Catholic high school on the southeastern side of Chicago, held a Mass in honor of those affected by the crash on Monday.
"We appreciate your thoughts and prayers for each of our student-athletes, coaches, families and friends," a statement posted to the school's social media accounts said.
Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Truck driver who allegedly caused Warsaw bus crash faces 26 charges
