Driver in fatal 2022 Halloween bus crash sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Kiley Cox’s current medical issues and the timeline for therapy she received.
The driver of a vehicle that struck a school bus, killing two of his friends and severely injuring a third, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison Thursday.
Kane County Judge David Kliment sentenced Tyler A. Schmidt, 21, of South Elgin, in the Oct. 31, 2022, school bus crash that killed Campton Hills siblings Grace and Emil Diewald and critically injured Kiley Cox of South Elgin.
Schmidt will get credit for 827 days already served – both while on electronic home monitoring and physically in jail, and is eligible for day-for-day good time.
“You are really at a crossroads,” Kliment said at the end of the second day of the hearing. “If you don’t change, you will see me or some other judge again.”
Schmidt pleaded guilty to committing reckless homicide and aggravated reckless driving.
Kliment acknowledged evidence that showed Schmidt was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when he was six, received medication for it, special education services and had some intellectual delay.
Prison would not bring back the Diewald children to their parents, nor heal Kiley Cox, but Kliment said the sentence should serve as a deterrent to keep others from similar reckless behavior.
Kliment also cited Schmidt’s not following the rules for his electronic home monitoring. This included getting caught speeding – 21 mph over the limit on Route 47 – and testing positive for marijuana as additional reasons to be as severe in sentencing as the law allows.
Kiley’s mother and sister, Sandra and Shaye Cox, both read impact statements of how Kiley’s devastating injuries and suffering changed their lives.
Schmidt was driving a 2013 Lexus SUV east on Empire Road near Kingswood Drive at 3:45 p.m. when it struck a school bus, also traveling east. The bus, with 24 children aboard, was coming from Lily Lake Grade School and had stopped to drop off students.
Emil, 19, and Grace, 20, were on the passenger side, front and back, while Kiley, 17, sat behind Schmidt.
In addition to her severe head injury, Kiley suffered a broken jaw, a bruised liver and a collapsed lung, her mother said.
Currently, she suffers from memory loss.
Family members took Kiley to Arlington Heights for her therapy five days a week for a year ending in 2024, Sandra Cox said.
“Kiley asked, ‘Where are we going?’ over and over again. She has no memory,” Sandra Cox said. “She would cry and not want to go. Every day is a struggle...Kiley has no memory of the past, present ... Today she wakes up and says she feels dead and broken inside.”
Sometimes sobbing and wiping her eyes, Shaye Cox said she misses the fun-loving little sister who laughed, sang and danced.
She loved music so much, Shaye Cox said, that Kiley would ask her to drive the long way home so she could listen to one more song.
“I miss who she was,” she said.