11 Hurt as Car Plows Into Playground

With the driver screaming he couldn’t stop, a car drove into a school playground Friday as a crowd gathered for an awards assembly. At least 11 people were injured, mostly children.

Several remained hospitalized Friday night, including a 4-year-old boy in serious condition with a fractured skull.

The car went through a fence and across a playground at the Robert Fulton Elementary School on the city’s South Side, Fire Department spokesman Will Knight said.

“He was coming real fast,” witness Sandra Taylor said. “It was like he wouldn’t stop or he couldn’t stop or wouldn’t stop. I don’t know which one. Everybody was trying to get out of the way, but he was coming too fast.”

The driver, Lamont Prince, 22, was cited for four traffic violations and was being held for questioning, police spokesman Edward Alonzo said.

Prince was heard “yelling out he couldn’t stop,” police Cmdr. John Killackey said. He said police planned to run toxicology tests to see whether Prince had been drinking or taking drugs. Witnesses said Prince tried to flee but was apprehended by people at the scene.

More than an hour after the incident, yellow and blue chairs were scattered on their sides across the playground.

Theresa Jett, mother of two children at the school, said her second-grade son was taking part in the assembly.

Shaking and in tears, she said, “I just hope that the little boy that got run over. . . . God be with him.”

The 4-year-old boy was in serious condition at the University of Chicago Hospitals, spokesman John Easton said. Several other people were brought to Holy Cross Hospital, where a 3-month-old girl was in fair condition.

Paul Vallas, head of the Chicago school system, said a crisis intervention team was on the scene offering counseling.