Man Struck, Killed by PACE Bus

Update, 4:11 p.m. Quoting the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, the Chicago Tribune's Breaking News desk reports the victim is a 64-year-old Forest Park man. 

Original story: Authorities are investigating the cause of a fatal accident at the border of Oak Park and Forest Park that left one man dead on Thursday.

Witnesses told police a PACE bus traveling east on Madison Street had just begun to turn north onto Harlem Avenue around 12:15 p.m. when it struck a male pedestrian. According to a village of Oak Park news release, the man was crossing Harlem Avenue, "walking west on the north side of Madison Street."

PACE spokesman Patrick Wilmot said the man had "made contact with the side-rear portion of the bus and in the course of that contact was evidently knocked to the ground and thrown into the rear wheels of the bus."

It's unclear if the man was walking in the intersection's pedestrian crosswalk.

Emergency personnel arrived to find the man about eight feet from the crosswalk with what officials said was "severe leg trauma and significant loss of blood," officials said.

Though the accident took place just steps away from Rush Oak Park Hospital, the man was taken to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 1 p.m., authorities said.

The victim, a man believed to be in his mid-50s, has not been identified.

Wilmot said the driver of the bus is a 19-year veteran of PACE and has been the recipient of multiple safety awards. 

Please return to Oak Park-River Forest Patch for updates as they become available.