Man pleads guilty in school bus crash that killed 2 siblings on Halloween: records

Grace and Emil Diewald killed in crash with school bus on Halloween 2022

ByABC7 Chicago Digital Team WLS logo
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Man high on marijuana at time of crash that killed 2 siblings: records
Plato Township man Tyler Schmidt was high on marijuana at the time of a Kane County crash that killed Emil and Grace Diewald, records show.

KANE COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) -- A man has pleaded guilty on charges related to a school bus crash that killed two siblings on Halloween in 2022.

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The crash happened in Campton Hills on Empire Road between Burlington Road and Route 47, the Kane County Sheriff's Office said. It involved a 2013 Lexus SUV and a school bus.

Tyler Schmidt, then 18, was driving the Lexus. Kane Co. Sheriff Ron Hain said Schmidt was estimated to have been traveling 5-8 miles over the 45-mile-an-hour speed limit.

Schmidt crashed into the back of a school bus that had 31 students and one driver. The bus was from Central Community Unit School District 301, carrying students from Lily Lake Elementary School.

No one in the bus was seriously injured.

Emil, 19, and Grace, 20, Diewald were passengers in the Lexus Schmidt was driving. They both died in the crash.

A then 17-year-old South Elgin girl, who was also in the vehicle survived the crash.

In February 2025, Schmidt pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless homicide and aggravated reckless driving causing injury.

He is due to be sentenced in April 2025.

The video in the player above is from an earlier report.

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