Published: November 25, 2009 09:15 pm         

Two semis, school bus, car collide in Vermillion County

CAYUGA — A semi driver remains in critical condition following a multiple-vehicle crash on Indiana 63 involving a North Vermillion school bus.

Shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday, the Vermillion County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene near Perrysville to find two semis, a school bus and a passenger car had collided where traffic had been slowed due to a vehicle fire.

Don Morgan, 52, of rural Cayuga, was driving the northbound 2001 International school bus waiting to merge into the passing lane when a northbound 1998 Freightliner semi failed to stop and hit the rear of the bus, pushing it off the road and into a ditch on the east side of the highway. Morgan was the only occupant of the bus. He was treated at a Danville, Ill., hospital and released.

The semi was driven by Nenad Knezevic, 29, of Lyons, Ill., and belonged to BBS Trucking Inc. of Villa Park, Ill. After striking the bus, Deputy Chris MacLaren reported, the semi went into the passing lane and rear-ended a northbound 2003 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Benjamin Lange, 19, of West Lafayette. The car was pushed off the road and into the median.

The semi then struck the trailer of another semi that was slowly moving in the northbound lane. The other semi was a 2007 Peterbilt driven by Jeff Fraizer, 45, of Westville, Ill., and owned by Parks Livestock of Oakwood, Ill.

Knezevic was transported from the scene via helicopter. He remained in critical condition at Carle Foundation Hospital in Champaign, Ill., on Wednesday.

Lange and Fraizer both declined medical treatment at the scene.

Knezevic was issued a citation for a seat belt violation and for traveling too fast to avoid a collision.