Salem Lakes---A 21 year-old man was killed when the van he was driving slammed into the back of a school bus that was stopped on the highway for a pickup Friday morning.
The man--from Antioch-- was identified as an employee of Dikow Cyzak Tile in Kenosha. His name wasn't immediately released.
Four of the 19 Central High School students who were on the bus suffered minor injuries, according to Kenosha County Sheriff Dave Beth. Three were transported to an area hospital. The driver of the bus wasn't injured.
The crash--on Highway 'C' near near Highway 83--happened just as a student boarded the bus and sat down.
The impact of the crash pushed the bus forward about 60 feet, Beth said.
The engine compartment of the van became lodged underneath the back of the bus. That, plus the absence of skid marks, leads investigators to believe that the man had been traveling at highway speeds and that the driver, for one reason or another, never pressed the brake. "I'm going to assume that something was going on that caused him not to see this school bus," Beth told reporters at a Friday afternoon news conference. "There was something that caused the driver not to see the bus--whether it was a medical condition or he was distracted."
The man's cell phone was recovered and will be examined, Beth said.
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