CHICAGO _ A Chicago Transit Authority bus collided with a car in the Goose Island neighborhood, sending at least 15 people to area hospitals, two of them with serious injuries, officials said.
Two of those injured were considered in critical to serious condition while the remaining 13 were in fair-to-serious condition, said Larry Merritt, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department.
The two people with more severe injuries were riding in a black Mercedes-Benz four-door sedan involved in the crash, he said.
"It was a bus versus a passenger vehicle and the result is you have 15 people transported to area hospitals," Merritt said, adding he was unsure which hospitals were treating the injured.
One injured person declined to be taken to the hospital, according to fire officials, who originally had said 16 people were being taken to hospitals.
The crash took place Wednesday afternoon near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Peoria Street and sent the bus into a light pole, where it stopped. Details of how the two vehicles collided or what factors may have led to the crash were not immediately available from police or firefighters.
"I don't know what the cause was, as to who hit who and what," Merritt said.
Merritt said it wasn't clear if everyone on the bus was injured or if there were some passengers who made it safely off the bus.
Traffic was rerouted in the area after the crash.
