Pedestrian Killed In Megabus Accident Was Court Secretary

In our last post we discussed a fatal downtown Chicago pedestrian accident involving a Megabus which struck a 76-year-old woman. ABC News reports that the woman was a retired Illinois Supreme Court secretary who lived in downtown Chicago near the accident scene.

“She was a great woman, a go-getter,” said one of the woman’s friends. “She was the kind of person all communities would be proud of. She had a far-reaching affect on people who knew her. I am proud to have known her and am saddened by her death.”

“Great legacy and real proud to be her son and hurting pretty hard,” the woman’s son said. The woman’s daughter noted that her mother was a stickler for rules and a cautious pedestrian.

“She loved everything about rules,” the woman’s daughter said. “That’s why I can guarantee you my mother was one of those, you go to the light, you cross with the light, you stay in the crosswalk.”

The family of the woman recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Megabus. In a press conference, the woman’s children raised concerns about the number of large buses around parts of downtown Chicago that are congested with pedestrians.

An attorney for the family said that Megabuses are particularly dangerous in pedestrian zones because of their large blind spots.

“If the pedestrian is walking across the street at the same pace that the bus is turning, that pedestrian can be in the blind spot of the bus driver through the entire turn,” he said.

The 32-year-old Megabus bus driver was cited by Chicago police for failing to yield to a pedestrian. The former Supreme Court secretary’s death is just one of several Megabus accidents to happen this month, including a severe highway accident near Litchfield on Aug. 2, and a Megabus fire in Georgia earlier this week.

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