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CHICAGO (WLS) — St. Ignatius College Prep will hold a special Mass Monday after 16 student hockey players were injured, some seriously, after a bus crash in Indiana.
The crash was in Warsaw, in the north-central part of the state Saturday night.
Sixteen St. Ignatius College Prep students were seriously injured Saturday night after a semi-truck crashed into their bus in Warsaw, Indiana, flipping it over. Warsaw is located about 50 miles south of South Bend. Police said the truck was seen swerving at speeding at around 8 p.m.
Twenty three student athletes from the St. Ignatius junior varsity boys hockey team and two coaches were on board. At least one student was ejected from the bus.
The team was heading to a hotel after dinner after competing in a tournament earlier in the day.
“Right now prayer is the most important thing,” St. Ignatius College Prep President John Chandler said. “We had 16 students that were injured, five were admitted to the hospital. At this point in time, all of them will be returning to health, but some much longer than others.”
Police believe alcohol was a factor.
Warsaw police said the officers detected a strong odor of alcohol from the 58-year-old truck driver who they say failed a field sobriety test. He’s now facing possible felony charges.
“We’re grateful for the respect of privacy for those families and also truly ask for prayers,” Chandler said. “Many people in our community have reached out saying, ‘What can we do?’ And that’s the great gift of St. Ignatius community.”
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Meanwhile, one St. Ignatius parent who has also handled numerous trucking negligence cases as an attorney is offering legal counsel and guidance to the families.
One St. Ignatius parent is doing what she can to help. Not only is she a mother of two St. Ignatius students, but she is also an attorney who has handled numerous trucking negligence cases, serves as the Senate appointee to the “Move Over Task Force” and has testified before the House for stricter trucking laws
Elizabeth Kaveny is now offering legal counsel and guidance to families affected for free.
“It was just panic, just panic,” Kaveny said. “What do I do? How do I fix this?”
Now, as her two worlds collide, she knew she could and had to be of service.
“They are going to have to go through a whole criminal proceeding in another state and some of them are going to look to a civil proceeding in this state or in Indiana. So a lot of them are going to struggle with, what do you want to do next,” she said. “I have talked to a couple families already that just wanted to cry with me and they just said they didn’t know what they needed, they didn’t even have any questions yet, but they just wanted to cry and tell me what it happened. I just said, ‘I know, I know. It’s going to be OK, it’s going to be OK, you’re going to be OK.'”
The school told ABC7 some of the families have since returned to Chicago, while others may need to remain there for a bit as those critically hurt students recover in the hospital.
Meanwhile, that Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. as many of those students continue to recover.
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