Toddler, 2 adults hurt when minivan crashes into daycare
By Jackie Kostek
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — Three people were injured, including a child, when a minivan crashed into a daycare center Friday morning in the Chatham neighborhood.
The crash happened at Raekwon’s Scholastic Academy Daycare in the 200 block of West 79th Street.
The daycare’s owner, Raekwon Neighbors, told CBS 2 that it appeared a parent dropping off their child accidentally pressed the accelerator of their car and drove into the daycare.
Surveillance video shows that, around 8:15 a.m., a minivan pulls into the parking lot from the west, and appears to be pulling into a parking spot right in front of the entrance, but instead of slowing down, the vehicle speeds up and over the curb and into the building.
Chicago Fire Department officials said a toddler who was inside the car was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition. The child’s father, who was driving the car, was taken to the hospital; and one teacher who was inside the daycare also was taken to the hospital. Their conditions were stabilized. No children inside the daycare were hurt.
Neighbors said it was absolutely miraculous that no children inside the school were injured. The location where the minivan crashed into the building is where 3-year-olds have circle time after 9 a.m.
After the crash, kids filed out of the building into the parking lot.
Neighbors said his daycare center has been open for 11 years, and has 116 students. He and one of the parents at that daycare both understand this could have been much worse.
“I’m glad just no kids got hurt, because those are my babies. Those are my babies. I know every last kid in here, their family. I love them. They’re like they’re my own kids,” a neighbors said.
“It’s some classrooms right in the front. That’s why it’s unbelievable, and it’s a blessing that no kids got hurt,” mother Trenisha Jackson said.
Neighbors said he doesn’t know yet how much it will cost to make repairs to the daycare, but he’s been told the building is structurally sound.
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