The stupid part of this is that I passed the semi about 1 minute before and noticed the driver talking on a Nextel phone. He wasn't looking at the road then and probably wasn't when he crashed. He was looking in the left side mirror and not paying attention to what was happening in front of him. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
There were four passengers in the car. Two guys in the back and two women in the front. Everyone was in their 20's. The passenger side woman got out, put her hand over her mouth, and just stood there. The driver side woman got out and started screaming at the semi driver. She was really angry and was doing all these little 1 inch high tantrum jumps. Glad I'm not the semi driver.
In general, traffic in Chicago requires more alertness than most other areas. There are sooo many cars and everyone is in a hurry. You can't drive 5 minutes without seeing someone do something rude and stupid. You can't listen to the traffic reports on the radio in the morning or evening without hearing about one expressway or another which is no longer express because some moron can't drive. Why do I live here again??? Oh, right...it must be that lovely winter weather.