Parents, teachers to help Shorewood school after SUV crashes through wall
By Tony Graf tgraf@stmedianetwork.com December 27, 2012 6:02PM
No children were injured Wednesday when a car crashed into a classroom at Walnut Trails Elementary School in Shorewood. School was not in session. Police say the 37-year-old driver apparently went into a diabetic coma. Her car left the road, crossed a fie
Updated: January 29, 2013 6:37AM
SHOREWOOD — Parents and teachers have volunteered to help relocate a classroom after a sport-utility vehicle crashed through the wall of Walnut Trails Elementary School on Wednesday.
The kindergartners’ class was not in session when the crash occurred, as students were off for break. When these kindergartners return to school on Jan. 7, they will attend in the classroom next door, said Al Gegenheimer, superintendent of the Minooka Grade School District.
The goal in moving next door is to keep the kindergarten classes together, Gegenheimer said.
On Thursday, seven teachers came in to help organize material for the move. The move will take place Friday and three days next week. Some parents also have volunteered to help in the effort.
“They work really well together,” Gegenheimer said. “In all of our schools, we’ve got really nice people living in our community. We’re just very fortunate to have such nice people.”
The kindergarten class will be moved to a special-education classroom next door. That special education class will be moved to a room down the hallway. But in order to make that move, all material being stored in that room will be taken to another building in the district, Gegenheimer said.
The crash took place Wednesday afternoon at Walnut Trails, 301 Wynstone Drive, Shorewood. At 12:26 p.m., a 37-year-old woman was driving a Jeep Patriot down Parkside Drive approaching Hunter Drive when she slipped into a diabetic coma, Shorewood police said.
The driver apparently blacked out, hit some landscaping stones, missed the parking lot, and drove through a field until she struck the side of the building, police said.
The vehicle crashed through the brick wall and struck part of the boiler system, sending large chunks of pipe halfway across the classroom. The crash also brought live electrical wires down from the ceiling as the room filled with water and steam, police said.
The Troy Township Fire Protection District transported the driver to Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet. There were no passengers.
