PRESIDING JUSTICE CHAPMAN delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Morris Kohn, appeals from an order granting a summary judgment in favorof the defendants. We affirm.

Kohn's amended complaint contains three nearly identical counts for negligence againstthe defendants, Laidlaw Transit, Inc., Mayflower Contract Services, Inc., and Alice M.Millender, a school bus driver. Kohn alleges that Millender was operating a school bus in asoutherly direction on Washington Avenue in the City of Madison, where she stopped the busto drop off a passenger (Tyrone Collins). He alleges that he collided with Tyrone as Tyroneattempted to cross Washington Avenue in front of the bus, because Millender failed to operatethe mechanical arm and stop sign on the bus. Kohn further alleges that he was attacked by anumber of bystanders and suffered serious and permanent injuries to his face and head whenhe attempted to render assistance to Tyrone. Kohn contends that Millender owed a duty to himto exercise reasonable care in using the arm and sign on the side of the bus to warn vehiclesand prevent them from passing while passengers were departing. Kohn alleges that thedefendants committed the following negligent acts or omissions which proximately caused hisinjuries:

"(A) Failed to operate, utilize, and extend the mechanical 'stop' sign and arm from theside of its bus so as to prevent the Plaintiff's vehicle from colliding with one ofthe bus' [sic] passengers;

(B) Failed to operate, utilize, and extend a mechanical 'stop' sign and arm from theside of said bus to warn the Plaintiff of the existence of departing buspassengers;

(D) Failed to inform the angry mob which had gathered around the Plaintiff that themechanical 'stop' sign and arm had not been extended from the side of said bus[;][and]

The defendants stated in their renewed motion for a summary judgment that Millenderwas employed as a bus driver for Laidlaw Transit, Inc., and Mayflower Contract Services, Inc. Millender stopped the bus to drop off Tyrone and Jessica Collins. When Millender stoppedthe bus, she opened the door, which extended the mechanical arm and stop sign. Tyrone andJessica's mother entered the bus to sign her children off the bus. Millender closed the doorwhen they exited the bus, which automatically retracted the mechanical arm and stop sign.

The defendants' motion contains the following four arguments: (1) the defendants owedno duty to Kohn because Tyrone's mother signed Tyrone off the bus and had custody of himat the time of the incident, (2) the defendants fulfilled any duty imposed by Illinois law becauseMillender extended the arm and sign when Tyrone was exiting the bus, (3) the defendants didnot owe Kohn a duty because he was the victim of a criminal attack by other people, and (4)the defendants' alleged negligence was not the proximate cause of Kohn's injuries because theattack constituted a subsequent independent act that broke the causal connection betweenMillender's acts or omissions and Kohn's injuries. Without explanation the trial court grantedthe defendants' renewed motion.

A summary judgment is appropriate when the pleadings, depositions, affidavits, andadmissions on file, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, reveal that nogenuine issue of material fact exists and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as amatter of law. Ragan v. Columbia Mutual Insurance Co., 183 Ill. 2d 342, 349, 701 N.E.2d493, 496 (1998). A summary judgment is a drastic remedy that is allowable only when theright of the moving party is clear and free from doubt. Jones v. Chicago HMO Ltd. of Illinois,191 Ill. 2d 278, 291, 730 N.E.2d 1119, 1127 (2000). A motion for a summary judgment isreviewed de novo. ESM Development Corp. v. Dawson, 342 Ill. App. 3d 688, 692, 795N.E.2d 397, 401 (2003). Our function on an appeal from the grant of a summary judgment islimited to determining whether the trial court correctly found that no genuine issue of materialfact existed and, if that was the case, whether the trial court correctly entered a judgment asa matter of law. General Casualty Co. of Illinois v. Carroll Tiling Service, Inc., 342 Ill. App.3d 883, 889, 796 N.E.2d 702, 707 (2003). The following evidence was before the trial court.

Kohn testified as follows. Immediately preceding the incident, he had been on ThirdStreet in Madison and turned right at a four-way stop onto Washington Avenue. When heturned onto Washington Avenue, a two-lane, two-way street, he noticed a bus parked about twoshort blocks ahead of him on the right. The bus's lights were not flashing and the mechanicalarm and stop sign were not extended. He was traveling very slowly and approached a four-waystop at the end of the first block on Washington Avenue. A car was stopped at the sameintersection to his left. He waved at the car to turn, and the car turned left onto WashingtonAvenue ahead of Kohn. After the stop sign, he continued to approach the bus, which was parkedin the middle of the block on the south side of an alley. He was traveling about 5 to 10 milesper hour. Kohn saw the car that he had waved on park behind the bus on the north side of thealley. He observed that the car was white, had four doors, and contained four male African-American occupants (Kohn is Caucasian). The occupants exited the vehicle and walked towardsome boxcar trailers on the right side of the street directly across from a housing project. Hedescribed the surrounding area as a "bad" area. A large crowd of people had gathered, andthey were talking by the bus, which was parked at the curb and not occupying the entire trafficlane. As he approached the bus, he still did not see any flashing lights or the mechanical armand stop sign extended. He approached the bus cautiously, and as the front end of his carreached the front end of the bus, Tyrone appeared. Kohn "stomped" on his brakes and heobserved Tyrone run away crying. He does not know if he struck Tyrone. Tyrone did not hitthe ground and he was not limping. (Tyrone returned to school two days later and had not filedsuit against Kohn.)

The front end of Kohn's vehicle came to rest a few feet ahead of the front end of thebus, such that when he exited the vehicle to check on Tyrone, he stood directly across from thebus driver, who was sitting in her seat. When Kohn got out of his vehicle, a group of mensurrounded him. They began yelling at Kohn, "What are you doing running around, running stopsigns?" (referring to the mechanical arm and stop sign on the bus). The bus driver sat in the busand never got out; she leaned and spoke out of her window. While Kohn was surrounded by thisgroup of men, he said to the bus driver, "Lady, tell the people that the sign was not out." Thebus driver said that the sign was out. She further stated: "I'm not lying. The sign was out." Thegroup of men continued to accuse Kohn, saying, "Why are you trying to hurt that little boy?" Kohn replied that he was not trying to hurt anyone, that he had children of his own, and that thesign had not been out.

About 50 people had gathered around him at this point, including the four men he hadwaved through the intersection. Three or four men in particular were "on his case." One man,standing directly in front of him, was interrogating him. He observed one of the men who hadbeen in the parked vehicle walk to the trunk of the vehicle and return with a tire iron. The maninterrogating him took a step away from Kohn, and Kohn was struck from behind on the sideof his head with what he believes was the tire iron. He fell to the ground and was beatenseverely by the four men who had parked behind the bus, who he believed were intoxicated. Herose to his feet and was beaten down again. He heard police sirens as he rose a second timeand suddenly found himself alone. He said to the bus driver: "I hope you're happy, Lady. Is thiswhat you wanted?" The bus driver said: "I'm so sorry, sir. They should not have done that. You're right. The sign was not out." Kohn asked her to tell the police the truth and she said shewould.

Kohn provided the police with descriptions of his attackers, including one who had a"bum" eye and scars. Although the police recognized the descriptions of Kohn's attackers, theyhave not been caught and their identities remain unknown. Kohn sustained severe andpermanent injuries.

Millender testified that she picked up a group of Head Start children at a Venice schoolin a 35-passenger bus. Immediately preceding the incident, Millender had dropped a child offat the corner of Market Street and Washington. The yellow lights on the bus were on as sheturned right onto Washington Avenue and headed toward Tyrone's stop.

The light and sign system on the bus is called an "eight-way" because there are twoyellow lights and two red lights in the rear of the bus and two of each color in the front. Toactivate the lights the driver must hit a master switch or flash button before the door is opened. If the switch is activated, the yellow lights flash first, and when the door is opened, themechanical arm and stop sign are automatically extended and the red lights begin to flash. Ifthe switch is not activated, only the door opens.

Millender stopped at Tyrone's house and blew her horn, because Head Start policyrequires the child's parent to sign the child off the bus. She was stopped "kind of in the street,not all the way to curb." The yellow lights were still flashing. When Tyrone's motherapproached the bus, Millender opened the bus door, which automatically extended themechanical arm and stop sign and activated the red flashing lights. Tyrone's mother signed forher children and they exited the bus. As they started walking to their house, Millender closedthe door, which retracted the mechanical arm and stop sign. She then noticed that Tyrone wasnot with his mother, so she opened the door again to see where he was. She had not reactivatedthe arm, sign, and lights. Millender shouted for Tyrone but he did not respond. She heardbrakes squealing, which drew her attention to her left, where she saw Kohn's vehicle come toa halt next to the bus. She saw Tyrone fall to the ground then walk away.

People began crowding the area from different directions. A group of angry-lookingmen began asking Kohn questions such as "Didn't you see this bus?" and "Don't you knowthere's [sic] kids here-when there's a bus, there's [sic] kids?" They started to beat Kohn, atwhich time Millender shouted out her bus window to the men: "Come on, guys. Don't do that. Don't do that." Millender claims that she got off of the bus and got between the men and Kohnand that they proceeded to stop beating him. She estimates that the beating lasted about 10 to15 seconds or more.

Millender does not recall Kohn saying anything to her during the incident, but after thebeating had begun, she heard Kohn telling his attackers that the arm and sign had not beenextended at the time of the accident. Kohn's attackers did not ask Millender whether the armand sign had been extended. She recalls telling another woman on the bus that the "stop arm"was out and yelling to the police from her window that the arm was out. Millender alsotestified that prior to the beating, in the excitement of the moment, she may have yelled outher window in Kohn's direction that the stop arm had been extended. After the beatingconcluded, Kohn and Millender stood by the side of the bus and he said that the arm had notbeen out and Millender said that it had. Millender got on the bus and realized at that momentthat she had closed the door when Tyrone exited and that the arm and sign had retracted. Shelater told the police that she had closed her door, which retracted the arm so that the sign hadnot been out when Kohn approached the bus.

We first address the defendants' contention that Kohn cannot defeat a summaryjudgment motion with theories that he failed to plead in his complaint. Specifically, thedefendants contend that Kohn waived his arguments that the bus had blocked Kohn's view ofTyrone and that the defendants' actions constituted a tort under section 876(b) of theRestatement (Second) of Torts (Restatement (Second) of Torts