NBC Chicago's Dick Johnson spoke with those involved in the crash and those who offered help. (Published Tuesday, June 2, 2015) 
 
 One person was killed and eight others injured in a serious crash involving a Chicago Transit Authority bus during the Tuesday evening rush hour, officials said. 
 
 The fatality was a 51-year-old woman who died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She was identified as Aimee Coath of Flossmoor, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. 
 
 Eight others, including the bus driver, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. 
 
 The Route 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express bus was eastbound on Lake Street just before 6 p.m. when it collided with several other vehicles at North Michigan Avenue and East Lake Street. 
 
 Ambulances Called to Downtown Bus Crash 
 
 NBC Chicgao's Dick Johnson reports from North Michigan Avenue and East Lake Street. (Published Tuesday, June 2, 2015) 
 
 "[The bus] hit the curb and went up on the curb and slammed into a concrete wall," said witness Robert Kudd. "People were screaming and running towards the bus. The bus driver was hurt. The windshield of the bus was out." 
 
 At least 10 ambulances were called to the scene. 
 
 Kudd said one person who was pinned under the bus was removed with a white sheet covering them. 
 
 "It was a bad scene. Several cars were smashed," he said. 
 
 Evanston resident Julie Larkin works in the Michigan Plaza building near the site of the crash. She said she was in a first-floor CVS store when she heard a scream and then "horrible thuddy crash." 
 
 She ran outside to see the bus driver with his eyes closed, apparently unconscious. No one except for the driver was on the CTA bus at the time of the crash, according to fire officials and the CTA. Several people boarded the bus to check on the driver while Larkin called 911. 
 
 "I'll never forget that scream," she said. 
 
 The articulated bus came to rest on the sidewalk adjacent to a plaza at 205 N. Michigan Ave. The bus was removed from the scene shortly before 8:30 p.m. 
 
 Investigators were looking into what caused the crash, and were analyzing video footage from a camera on board that shows the interior of the bus, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said. 
 
 Parts of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street were closed to traffic for several hours. The CTA rerouted several buses around the crash scene. ||||| The driver of a CTA bus that jumped a curb on Michigan Avenue during evening rush hour, killing a woman and injuring eight other people, has been cited for not stopping at a red light and for "failure to exercise due care," according to police. 
 
 No criminal charges have been filed but police said they are continuing to investigate the accident, which happened around 5:50 p.m. Tuesday at Lake Street. 
 
 The accordion-style bus had been headed east on Lake and stopped at a red light at Michigan Avenue, police said. The bus then proceeded through the light, striking two pedestrians and four cars before jumping the curb, police and CTA officials said. 
 
 The bus came to rest on the sidewalk on the north side of Lake Street, near a plaza at 205 N. Michigan Ave. A pedestrian, Aimee Coath, 51, of south suburban Flossmoor, was trapped under the bus and had to be freed by paramedics. 
 
 "They took her from under the bus and loaded her onto the gurney," said Charles Valiquette, 51. "Then they spread the sheet out on her." 
 
 Valiquette, from Dayton, Ohio, said he was on Michigan Avenue just north of Lake when he heard the crash and turned around to see a bus on the sidewalk and a woman pinned underneath. He said he ran over to help. 
 
 "I was talking to her. I told her to hang in there ... but it was just nothing," said Valiquette. "I don't think she saw the bus coming or heard it. There were other people in the crosswalk that saw the bus coming and made it." 
 
 Witness describes scene of CTA bus crash Hector Vega describes the scene of a multivehicle crash involving a CTA bus at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in Chicago on June 2, 2015. (Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune) Hector Vega describes the scene of a multivehicle crash involving a CTA bus at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in Chicago on June 2, 2015. (Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune) See more videos 
 
 Coath was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. 
 
 “I only want to communicate how well loved she was,’’ Coath’s close friend, Elizabeth Oliver, said through tears. “She had so many friends. We will all miss her dearly.’’ 
 
 Another pedestrian and six others were taken to hospitals for injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. The bus driver, 48, suffered minor injuries and was also taken to Northwestern. 
 
 CTA officials said the driver was evaluated after the crash and showed no signs of impairment from drugs or alcohol but said final results from a drug test were not yet available. 
 
 The driver had been hired by the CTA less than a year ago as a bus operator, according to CTA spokesman Brian Steele. He had driven the No. 148 route prior to Tuesday's crash, but Steele could not say for how long. 
 
 CTA officials are reviewing footage from the bus at the time of the crash. Steele said early Wednesday it was too soon to know what disciplinary action, if any, would be taken against the bus driver. 
 
 Police: Driver ran red light before bus crash killed 1, injured 8 A CTA bus driver was ticketed after police said he ran a red light Tuesday evening before striking two pedestrians and several cars downtown, killing a 51-year-old woman and injuring at least eight other people. (CBS Chicago) A CTA bus driver was ticketed after police said he ran a red light Tuesday evening before striking two pedestrians and several cars downtown, killing a 51-year-old woman and injuring at least eight other people. (CBS Chicago) See more videos 
 
 "We don't know enough about the circumstances," Steele said. CTA officials could not say if the driver had ever been cited before Tuesday's crash. 
 
 Jack Baldwin said he was driving the first car that was struck by the bus. He heard a loud honk from the bus before it rear-ended his Nissan Sentra and his car spun out. 
 
 "It took me a while to realize what is going on here," he said. After gathering himself, he said, he got out of his car and saw that other cars had been hit and the bus was over a sidewalk. 
 
 "I see the bus up on the hill, and there were a bunch of screams," Baldwin said. "I walked over, and I see that there's a woman pinned under the bus. It's not easy to see something like that. " 
 
 Margaret Aprison, 26, was headed home from her job at the nearby Aon Center, 200 E. Randolph St., and was walking near Lake and Stetson Avenue when she “heard all this noise and all this screaming” and saw the bus drive up onto the sidewalk near the plaza. 
 
 “I did end up seeing someone fly up in the air as the bus hit them,” then she saw the bus drive over where it appeared the person landed, Aprison said. 
 
 Aprison saw a crowd gather around the bus, and noticed that a black car struck by the bus had not stopped moving and the driver was trying to use a cellphone. 
 
 “The driver was trying to call 911 and he couldn’t get through,” Aprison said. 
 
 A woman and a man in the car were able to get out, but the driver was trapped, she said. Aprison tried to tend to the two passengers as they waited for ambulances. The man was bleeding from the head, and Aprison persuaded him to sit down. 
 
 “When the ambulance came, I was waving my hand, trying to get the attention of the ambulance,” Aprison said. “I stayed until I was literally asked to leave.” 
 
 The injured man sat against the car as fire crews tried to get the driver out, rocking the car to try to free him, she said. “They were really shaking the car."
– A rush-hour collision between a Chicago Transit Authority bus and several other vehicles yesterday left one person dead and at least eight others injured, one of them critically, authorities say. The accident occurred around 6pm in the north Loop. Authorities say the articulated Route 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express bus collided with at least three other vehicles at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street. The bus went onto the sidewalk, and at one point a pedestrian was pinned underneath. She was taken away covered in a sheet, a witness who ran to help tells the Chicago Tribune. NBC Chicago describes the fatality as a 51-year-old woman. The driver, who was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, was the only person on the bus, and investigators are looking at video from a camera that records the interior of the bus.