Eliana Siegal boarded a Megabus at Union Station downtown Thursday morning, eager to catch a concert in St. Louis that night.
But a few hours later, her day was turned upside down when the 64-passenger bus smashed into a concrete pillar of an overpass on Interstate 55 near Litchfield, about 60 miles northeast of St. Louis.
"I flew forward, and my glasses were smashed into the back of the seat in front of me," said Siegal, 16, of Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood. "People were panicking, and babies were crying. A woman across the aisle from me was screaming that her leg was broken."
Siegal, who was riding on the top tier of the double-decker bus, said she and other passengers rushed off the bus as quickly as they could out of fear it might explode. But the driver and at least one other passenger were trapped, she said.
A woman was killed and dozens of other people injured when the Megabus bound for Kansas City from Chicago smashed into the pillar, the Illinois State Police said. On Thursday night, state police identified the woman who was killed as Aditi R. Avhad, of Columbia, Mo.
The bus apparently blew a tire and skidded into the pillar about 1:20 p.m. As many as half the people on the bus were injured, state police Capt. Scott Compton said. Four to five of the injured were trapped and had to be extricated, including the woman who died, Compton said.
Television footage from the scene showed crews on ladders reaching inside the smashed front end of the bus. Thirty ambulances and five medical helicopters responded, and I-55 was shut down in both directions from the Carlinville exit to the Litchfield exit.
Compton said he was one of the first on the scene, and many of the passengers already were out of the bus. The bus was on its way to St. Louis from Chicago, then was scheduled to head to Kansas City.
"Some of them ... were a little more concerned or acting erratically, but it was relatively calm," he said. "There were all sorts of injuries, extremities, leg injuries, neck injuries. And there were several cuts to the heads and the legs and things like that."
On his way to Kansas City to see family, Michael Martin, 36, of Minneapolis, said he was asleep but woke up on the floor with bloodied people standing all around him and screaming.
"All I heard was hollering and screaming, blood," Martin said. "I was like, in shock, in a daze. A guy grabbed me ... told me I was in shock, my neck was swollen all up."
One rider near the front was stuck from waist up and yelling, and a child was stuck in a seat but calmer, Martin said.
"I just kept hearing people hollering," he said. "There was blood everywhere. Pain and shock. Little kids were screaming and crying."
Martin praised the response from the Litchfield community. "They were here in no time," he said.
Martin said he went to a hospital in Litchfield with minor head and neck injuries. "God is good," he said.
Phillip Keophaphone, 24, of Kansas City, was traveling home with several others he worked with on a series of photo shoots at Navy Pier and beach sites in Chicago over the last week.
"Honestly, I was asleep," said Keophaphone, a wardrobe stylist. "I just woke up to screaming.
"It was like a movie," he said, describing the scene after the crash. "Just God willing, there were a lot of helpful people."
Keophaphone said he wasn't injured, "so I just started helping as many people as I could." His friends were still in the hospital, but they did not suffer serious injuries, Keophaphone said.
Siegal said she believes she was uninjured because her father gave her a dollar to give to charity, a Jewish tradition that she said helped protect her en route.
A 24-year-old man was airlifted to St. Louis University Hospital in St. Louis with multiple fractures, and another person was flown to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, authorities said.
Four people were airlifted to Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, and another two were taken there by ambulance, spokesman Michael Leathers said. Their conditions were not known.
At least 16 people were taken to St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield, officials said. Most of them had moderate fractures, they said. Three patients were taken to Hillsboro Area Hospital in Hillsboro, Ill., none of them in critical condition, officials said.
Community Memorial Hospital in Staunton, Ill., received five patients, all of them with non-life-threatening injuries, hospital CEO Sue Campbell said.
"We're receiving the less severe injuries — bumps, bruises or possible lacerations," Campbell said. "Our doctors and nurses are receiving and assessing patients currently."
About 36 passengers from the bus were taken on two school buses to the community center in Litchfield, said Janis Johns, transportation director of Litchfield Community Unit School District 12.
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