Pedestrian Injured in Bus Accident on Illinois Road in Fort Wayne, IN

Fort Wayne, IN — July 24, 2025, one person sustained injuries due to a bus versus pedestrian accident at around 10:30 a.m. along Illinois Road.

Initial details about the accident say that it happened off the corner of the Illinois Road and Hillegas Road intersection.

According to officials, an unidentified man was on foot at the time. He had reportedly just exited a Citilink bus when reports say the man tripped on the curb. The man fell onto the roadway, following which the bus began driving, running the man over.

As a result of the accident, the man sustained reportedly critical injuries. Right now, the accident is still under investigation.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

With a serious accident like this, based on the current details in the news, two key questions come to mind.

One question is: Was it reasonable for the bus driver to believe it was safe to drive? Generally speaking, a bus driver has just about the highest standard legally to ensure their path is clear. After all, the very nature of buses means they will be surrounded by pedestrians. If a reasonably prudent professional bus driver couldn’t have possible avoided this, it’s unlikely this bus driver did anything wrong. But if a reasonably prudent professional bus driver should have been able to see the man fall and stop before hitting him, it would raise serious questions about why that didn’t happen here.

The second question is: Does this bus stop have known tripping hazards? Sometimes people trip on their own, but other times it’s the result of hazardous and uneven terrain. If this bus stop is known to be in bad shape, and the city hasn’t done anything to address that, it’s very possible that an accident like this was entirely foreseeable and preventable. People tend to only look at the vehicles and pedestrians involved in these accidents, but the environment where the accident happened must also be part of the investigations, too.

If authorities aren’t taking proper steps to answer these key questions, they might be missing something important.