The Latest: Truck collides with Illinois school bus; 2 dead

DOWNS, Ill. (AP) — The Latest on a crash involving a school bus in central Illinois (all times local):

4:50 a.m.

Authorities say a semitrailer heading the wrong way on an interstate in central Illinois collided head-on with a school bus carrying members of a high school basketball team, killing the driver of the truck and an adult on the bus.

Illinois State Police say eight girls on the bus were injured in the head-on crash Wednesday night on Interstate 74 near Downs, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Police say the bus driver and a coach also were injured.

Police say preliminary reports indicate the truck was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes.

Normal West High School athletic director Stan Lewis told The (Bloomington) Pantagraph the girls’ team was returning from a game.

Police say 72-year-old Charles Crabtree of Normal, Illinois, was the bus passenger who died. He was a volunteer with Normal West.

The driver of the truck was identified by police as a 34-year-old man from Iowa.

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12:20 a.m.

Authorities say a semitrailer in Illinois has collided with a school bus carrying members of a high school basketball team.

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reports that several people were taken to hospitals after the crash Wednesday night on Interstate 74 near Downs in central Illinois. Details about their conditions were not immediately known.

A school district spokeswoman, Dayna Brown, told the newspaper there were 11 people on the bus. They included students who play on the Normal West High School girls’ basketball team.

Normal West athletic director Stan Lewis said the team was returning from a game at a high school in Champaign.

Brown said Normal West will be open as usual Thursday, with counselors on hand.

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Information from: The Pantagraph, http://www.pantagraph.com