The Nation - News from April 29, 1988

A car careened across a Chicago playground and plowed into a crowd of children and adults about to leave an elementary school, killing a 4-year-old girl and a woman and injuring eight others, officials said. At least four of the injured were in critical condition. “I called for 10 ambulances,” said Jim Crowe, principal at Cyrus H. McCormick Elementary School. “I told them there were bodies all over the playground.” The driver, Isabel Fuentes, whose son attends the school, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and negligent driving. Police speculated she may have hit the accelerator instead of the brake. Fuentes was apprehended by police after she left the scene on foot and was found wandering the neighborhood in an apparent state of shock. She was freed after posting $100 bail and her driver’s license.