{"id":8531,"date":"2025-04-30T06:27:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T11:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=8531"},"modified":"2025-04-30T06:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T11:29:07","slug":"update-on-fatal-crash-in-chatham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/8531-update-on-fatal-crash-in-chatham\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on Fatal Crash in Chatham"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By BETH HUNDSDORFER AND JADE AUBREY<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"mailto:hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">news@capitolnewsillinois.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CHATHAM \u2014 The driver of a vehicle involved in a deadly crash Monday at an after-school program formerly worked for the Illinois State Police, the agency investigating the crash.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ISP identified the driver as Marianne Akers, 44, of Chatham. She worked at the ISP from June 2006 to August 2018, an ISP spokesman confirmed Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The crash occurred at 3:20 p.m. Monday when Akers\u2019 black Jeep left the road and traveled through a field, hitting the east side of a building that housed the YNOT, which stands for Youth Needing Other Things, an after-school camp in Chatham. The car drove through the building, striking several children and workers, before it exited the other side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those killed were Ainsley Johnson, 8; Kathryn Corley, 7; Alma Buhnerkempe, 7, all of Chatham, and Rylee Britton, 18, of Springfield, a counselor. All the victims died of blunt force trauma, according to Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon. Alma Buhnerkempe has survivors in our area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Six other children were hospitalized, one in critical condition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The building that houses the after-school program has a gym on the bottom floor and play areas upstairs. Children often sat on the wall during playtime at the gym.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After crashing through the building, the SUV traveled across a basketball court then hit a light pole and a fence around a small park near the Chatham water tower.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Akers was the only one in the vehicle and was not injured, according to police. She was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cause of the crash remains under investigation; toxicology reports are pending. Police said Monday it was not a targeted attack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Akers is a current employee of the Illinois Department of Transportation\u2019s Bureau of Business Services, according to an IDOT spokesman. She has been employed by the agency since November 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She also is a former cafeteria employee of Glenwood High School in Chatham.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sangamon County State\u2019s Attorney John Milhiser said Tuesday that police have made no arrests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOur thoughts and prayers are with the families impacted by this terrible tragedy,\u201d Milhiser said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chatham, a close-knit community of 15,000 people, is about 2.8 miles from the state capital of Springfield. Chatham schools are closed for the rest of the week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gov. JB Pritzker commented on the tragedy late Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI am horrified and deeply saddened by the deaths of children and numerous injuries in Chatham this afternoon,\u201d Pritzker said in a statement. \u201cMy heart is heavy for these families and the unimaginable grief they\u2019re experiencing \u2014 something that no parent should ever have to endure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Studio M Dance Centre in Chatham where Ainsley Johnson danced posted a tribute on social media Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAinsley was such a sweet and sassy dancer\/tumbler at our Studio and Complex \u2014 bringing joy, passion, and lots of laughter to her peers in class and her dance teachers. Her spirit will always be a part of our dance family, and she will be deeply missed every single day,\u201d the message said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Britton was preparing to attend the University of Iowa to study English and secondary education. One of her fellow Glenwood High School students stated that she \u201cwas always kind to everyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Community members shared several <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1E1toxJpHy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facebook posts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Monday urging residents to donate blood. By Tuesday morning, all of the time slots were booked until Friday. By Tuesday afternoon, Glenwood High School Student Council had raised over $100,000 for the victims\u2019 families through a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/help-chatham-families-after-ynot-accident?attribution_id=sl:b5ce208a-a2e6-4552-bcfe-fb13e576dab7&amp;lang=en_US&amp;utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&amp;utm_content=amp13_t1-amp14_c-amp15_t1&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;utm_source=copy_link&amp;v=amp14_c\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GoFundMe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chatham Village President Dave Kimsey <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/14p7rXttN5\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ordered<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> all flags in Chatham to be flown at half-staff for the next week. A candlelight vigil was to be held Tuesday night at Village Square Park, and another will be held Wednesday night at Glenwood High School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1CBDNBbQ58\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facebook post<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Tuesday, SIU Medicine announced that counseling and trauma support for Chatham residents will be available at Chatham Presbyterian Church on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BETH HUNDSDORFER AND JADE AUBREY Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com\u00a0 CHATHAM \u2014 The driver of a vehicle involved in a deadly crash Monday at an after-school program formerly worked for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Update on Fatal Crash in Chatham - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/8531-update-on-fatal-crash-in-chatham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Update on Fatal Crash in Chatham - 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