Dominic Moab was hanging merchandise up inside his African clothing shop when he heard a loud “boom” Monday morning in Bridgeport.
“I’m like, ‘Woah, what the hell was that?’” Moab, 45, told the Sun-Times.
Moab and his sister hurried outside moments after a CTA bus plowed into the renovated Ramova Theatre and nearly a dozen vehicles about 10:45 a.m.
Outside Moab’s Sage and Shea African Boutique, the fallout was shocking: a downed pole, several damaged parked cars and the rush of ambulances and police vehicles.
“I was scared. I was hoping that everyone was OK, and thank God everyone was OK,” Moab said.
The bus driver “hit the pole, then he hit the movie theater. … He keep going, and keep going, and the driver hit a lot of cars.”
Tyler Nevius, co-owner and founder of the Ramova, felt grateful.
There was “relief knowing that despite how horrible everything looked, there weren’t fatalities,” Nevius said Tuesday.
One staffer was inside at the time but was unharmed.
Many questions remain about why the driver of the northbound No. 8 Halsted bus crashed into the building and then into a Cadillac and at least 10 other vehicles. Five people initially were reported injured; it was unknown how many riders were on the bus.
Tuesday, CTA officials referred questions to police, who said they were still investigating.
Justin Balsara, 31, was seated at a desk inside his family’s clothing shop when he heard a deafening screech.
Balsara initially thought it was a semi hitting its brakes, but then heard shouting and ran outside where the injured, mostly adults, were lying on the street or sitting off to the side.
“Oh, my God!” Balsara heard one woman scream, while another’s leg was elevated.
“The fire department were treating them and took them in stretchers to the hospital, but it didn’t look horrible,” Balsara said.
Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), whose ward includes the Ramova, said Tuesday that it was “a miracle that no one was killed” by the “out-of-control” CTA bus and equally amazing that the bus didn’t cause more damage to the newly remodeled theater.
“It looks pretty superficial. It hit the doorway of the entrance to the brewery, and then it bounced off and took down a couple of light poles, went through the intersection at 35th and Halsted and then, ran into, it looked like a city vehicle — a pickup truck. Then it proceeded to plow down the street [and] hit seven or eight cars along the way. It was a pretty incredible sight,” Lee said.
Nevius initially worried about the damage to the theater, but his priorities quickly shifted once he got to the scene of the accident.
“We spent a significant amount of years and resources to bring [the building] back, and we just received our landmark status last week. I was worried about anything that would have impacted it,” Nevius told the Sun-Times. “But then I realized it was way bigger than that.”
Despite the crash and frightening scene that followed, Nevius was grateful for the community support he has received.
“Just that level of support and groups working together. … They managed the situation as well as possible,” Nevius said. “I’m so impressed with the response.”
The cost of the damage or timeline for repairs wasn’t immediately known, but as of Tuesday afternoon no performances were affected, and the theater planned to reopen Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Nevius and his wife, Emily, purchased the abandoned Ramova Theatre from the city for $1 in 2021. Last November, Quincy Jones, Jennifer Hudson and Chance the Rapper were announced as helming the newly renovated theater.
Renovations to the building cost more than $30 million, took seven years and involved 49 investors.
“We have a lot more activity going on in the ward now that the Ramova is open. There’s more people out and about,” Lee said. “The time of day was helpful that there weren’t more people just walking around and that other businesses weren’t damaged in the process.”
