Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog

A devastating tragedy reported by the Chicago Tribune has people wondering who’s to blame.

This week, the heartbreaking death of a five year-old child occurred after police in Chicago Heights, Illinois, handed car keys to an intoxicated adult.

According to the Chicago Tribune, after a 23 year-old woman was pulled over and taken into custody for driving with a suspended license, police gave the keys to the 1998 Chevy Cavalier to the woman’s boyfriend; her five year-old son was strapped in a car seat in the back seat.

The woman’s boyfriend spent much of the evening drinking with friends, reported the Chicago Tribune. At some point during the evening, the woman and her son joined him, and, because she wasn’t drinking, she was supposed to drive them back to the man’s house. Instead, she was stopped at 2:35 a.m. by Chicago Heights police for making an improper turn without a signal, reports show. An officer arrested her and handed the vehicle and her son over to her boyfriend.

According to authorities, the boyfriend “didn’t seem drunk.” Nevertheless, less than 40 minutes after the traffic stop, the man veered off the road and the car slammed into a tree. The young boy was killed at the scene, but the driver was unhurt.

Apparently the man’s blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit, and he had marijuana in his system; he has since been charged with felony driving under the influence of alcohol and reckless homicide in the single-car accident, reported the Chicago Tribune. However, the issue remains that the municipal police not only permitted, but also encouraged the man to drive.

Police have a duty of care to the people they protect. Chicago personal injury law principles hold that when people take a particular job in which they undertake to provide services needed for the safety of others, they assume a duty to carry out this promise and are required to use reasonable care in performing their duties.

When the person offering to provide those services fails to use reasonable care in carrying out the job, and his or her negligence causes injury to another person, the negligent person is responsible for the injuries caused, and may be made to answer to an Illinois personal injury lawsuit.

In this particular case, the Chicago Heights police undertook to provide safety to their constituents. They failed to use reasonable care because they didn’t ensure that the man was able to safely operate the car, and this failure ultimately was a cause of the little boy’s death.

Even though the driver has been indicted, the charges understandably provide little consolation to the boy’s family. Illinois personal injury lawsuits attempt to put people back in the position they were in prior to the injury or accident occurring by covering medical expenses, lost wages, or by compensating people for pain and suffering or the loss of a loved one.

Though they cannot bring back lost life, Chicago personal injury lawsuits are vital in the pursuit of justice.

A recent article published by MSNBC detailing the tragic death of a 7-year old school girl has any Chicago personal injury attorney wondering why the school didn’t do more to save her.

According to MSNBC, the first-grader died from an apparent allergic reaction after having eaten something containing nuts and eggs that triggered allergy-related breathing and heart problems. Though paramedics arrived less than five minutes after the school had called for help, she was already in cardiac arrest. She was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

This devastating situation is raising questions about how the school in this particular situation – and how schools across the country – should handle these types of circumstances.

Said MSNBC, school officials did not treat the girl with medication such as an epinephrine EpiPen, which can reverse severe allergic reactions. The young girl’s death is causing Chicago wrongful death attorneys to ask questions about whether public schools ought to have doses of anti-allergy medication on-hand for emergencies such as this.

In the summer of 2011, Illinois passed a law allowing schools to stockpile epinephrine to treat allergic reactions, and authorizing schools to administer the drugs in emergency situations without specific prescriptions.

Nevertheless, this story also raises issues of Illinois premises liability law. In general, premises liability law is triggered when an accident or injury occurs to an individual who is on property owned or controlled by another; the owner of the property may be liable if it can be proved that their negligence led to an injury. In this case, school administrators were in charge of the school premises, and were negligent in not having life-saving medications available for the young girl, and for not administering them to her. As a result, they may be made to pay for damages suffered by the girl’s family, such as:

• Pain, suffering or mental anguish suffered by her surviving family members,
• Loss of the girl’s companionship, and
• Punitive damages, which are intended to punish wrongdoers (in this case, school officials) and prevent them from harming others by ensuring that they act more carefully in the future.

Our Chicago wrongful death lawyers have successfully handled hundreds of wrongful death cases and recovered millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for the families of victims wrongfully killed because of someone else's negligence. Our attorneys understand how devastating these cases can be for families who have lost loved ones, and have the experience and expertise to fight for your rights. In fact, our attorneys won a $775,000 settlement for the family of a three-year-old boy who fell out of a 3rd story window to his death 10 days after his mother removed a broken window from their apartment and covered the opening with plastic. The landlord failed to have the window repaired in a timely manner.

If you've lost a loved one in a situation which you believe may be a result of the negligence of another person, you may be able to file a lawsuit to recover the costs involved to pay for medical and funeral expenses, lost benefits, such as insurance, from the death, and pain, suffering or mental anguish suffered by the survivors of the decedent. Contact an attorney to understand your rights under the law.

Our Chicago personal injury attorneys were saddened to hear of the deaths of two teenagers who were killed while working in a grain bin in Mount Carroll, Illinois.

The two teenage boys – along with another worker who was injured – were working in the grain bin at the northwestern Illinois company, helping the corn flow, while the machinery was running; devastatingly the three workers were trapped in corn that was more than 30 feet deep.

A grain bin is an agricultural structure used in farming to store bulk materials, such as grain, corn, coal, or sawdust. Grain bins are generally shorter in stature than silos, but serve the same purpose. Grain bins, if improperly equipped with safety devices, have the potential to be extremely dangerous; in fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports 16 fatalities in grain bin accidents in Illinois from 1998 to 2008.

According to the follow-up report prepared by OSHA rescue workers tried to free the workers by cutting holes in the sides of the bin to drain the corn. Unfortunately it was too late for the two teenage boys. OSHA investigators have since ruled that the accident could have prevented, and that none of the three workers were wearing safety harnesses or had lifelines.

Because working in a grain bin caries significant risk, there are a number of required precautions that must be taken to ensure worker safety – including making safety harnesses and lifelines available to grain-bin employees. These special laws are in place to protect the health and safety of workers. When a company doesn’t follow required procedures and a worker is injured or killed, that company may be held legally responsible for the damages that arise as a result of those injuries

These types of cases may give rise to an Illinois workplace injury lawsuit, where corporations are held liable for their negligent or intentional bad acts. In those instances, the companies may be required to pay either compensatory damages – which attempt to put the injured persons back in the positions they were in before being injured – or punitive damages – which are intended to punish the company and prevent them from harming others. In this particular case, compensatory damages may be awarded to the families of the teenage boys to compensate their loved ones for the loss of their respective companionship.

Following this tragedy, the company has gone out of business because it was required to pay almost $270,000 in federal fines because of the corporation’s negligence, including violations of child labor laws.

Any Chicago personal injury attorney knows that workplace injuries can be severe and life altering. Our attorneys have handled a number of these types of cases, including winning a $5.7 million settlement for a 27-year-old roofer in a workplace injury case who was paralyzed when he fell from a roof as a result of the general contractor's failure to provide appropriate safety devices.

If you or a loved one have suffered as a result of an injury that occurred at work, an attorney may be able to apprise you of your rights under the law. Because laws are in place to protect workers, you may be entitled to compensation under the law for your injuries.

A Chicago man recalled his experience of sustaining personal injuries from the dangerous flaming gel fuel. He told the Chicago Tribune that he remembered seeing a fireball go towards him and when he tried to shield his face, the flaming gel covered his face, arm, and shirt. The 31 year-old Lakeview Chicago man was merely attending a housewarming party for a friend in Chicago. The friend had his deck decorated for the housewarming party, including a decorative table to hold a flame in the middle. The dangerous flame is fueled by a gel that comes out of a bottle and burns without a wick. When the flame went out or got low, his friend added more gel, causing the explosion to occur and spraying burning gel onto the Chicago personal injury victim as he sat a few feet away.

Continue reading "Demands for ban of flaming gel fuel intensify" »

As Chicago nursing home abuse lawyers who have brought nursing home lawsuits against defendant nursing home ManorCare, we were happy to see that a jury awarded a large verdict to a family who suffered the loss of their family member due to nursing home abuse and neglect. The jury awarded the $91.5 million in damages to the family of a 87-year-old woman who died after her stay at a Heartland, a facility owned by ManorCare, Inc.. The jury ruled that the ManorCare facility failed to feed and care for the 87 year-old woman, who later died of complications from dehydration after she departed the Heartland of Charleston nursing home. Lawyers for the wrongful death victim’s son argued that during the woman’s three-week stay at the ManorCare nursing home, staffers confined the 87 year-old woman to a wheelchair even though she was able to ambulate. The nursing home staff testified that the nursing home was so grossly understaffed that it was impossible to provide proper care for all nursing home residents. An attorney for the nursing home reported that the nurses did all they could to care for the 87 year-old woman.

Continue reading "Jury awards $91.5 million to woman’s family in nursing home wrongful death lawsuit against Heartland" »

Our Chicago motor vehicle accident lawyers recognize that drugged driving is at least as dangerous as drunken driving and is not a risk worth taking on the road when operating heavy and dangerous machinery. A recent ruling issued by the Supreme Court of Illinois supports this contention and has given prosecutors a new weapon in driving-under-the-influence (DUI) cases. Now, prosecutors in the State of Illinois have the ability to upgrade charges against Illinois defendants when small traces of drugs are found in motorists’ systems after a crash, even if there is no evidence that they were impaired at the time. The Illinois Supreme Court Justices stated in their ruling that drivers even with the slightest remnant of an illegal drug in their bodies should be found guilty of a felony if their bad driving caused a Chicago car crash.

Continue reading "Illinois Supreme Court ruling allows upgraded charges in drugged driving cases" »

A recent study highlighting the litigation costs that the city of Chicago endured in 2010 has been called a public relations stunt by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA). A recent study released by a group called I-Law (Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch) claims that Chicago spent almost $85 million for litigation in 2010. The organization’s Executive Director announced that the city’s litigation expenditure of just under $85 million could have been better spent on other things, such as public safety, health, education, senior services, and road projects. The Executive Director claimed that the city has earned a reputation as “The City That Settles” Chicago personal injury lawsuits, rather than the “City that Works.” The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association president aptly called the report slanted, pointing out that the I-LAW is an anti-consumer group and spins very limited information into a conclusion that fits their bias. ITLA president Mr. Latherow addresses that the I-LAW study fails to mention the type of Chicago lawsuits brought against the city and instead highlights one specific case that was a lawsuit between family members.

Of course, such attacks are not new to Chicago personal injury lawyers. Tort reform groups incessantly attack consumers and protect their big corporations avoid any liability, pointing out the most egregious cases and not focusing on the facts. Statistics can be twisted to paint a picture in any way one would like. In this case, I-LAW wants to paint an unfair and inaccurate picture of the courts in Cook County and paint our neighborhood to be one replete with Chicago personal injury lawsuits. But, in fact, as Mr. Latherow pointed out, many of the Chicago lawsuits filed involving the city of Chicago are eminent domain cases, zoning and other business matters totally unrelated to personal injury lawsuits and wrongful death claims. They also neglect to account for the hundreds of lawsuits filed in response to the police torture from years ago.

Read more about the Illinois personal injury lawsuit report at the Madison Record.

A nursing home resident at Maryhaven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center died in early July, and this past Friday, Glenview police ruled the 86-year-old’s death a homicide. The Chicago Sun Times reports that the resident’s fatal brain injuries were the result of a nursing home assault by another resident. The incident occurred in the nursing home’s dementia unit that handles residents with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. According the Maryhaven’s website, the facility is participating in a study to improve care and the quality of life for people living with dementia.

Although the exact circumstances surrounding this assault are unclear and not reported at this time, both the police and the Illinois Department of Public Health are investigating. However, under the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, facilities have an obligation to protect the safety and well-being of residents under their care. Unfortunately, many facilities operate at minimal staffing levels to save money, making it difficult for workers to provide the level of care necessary for elderly residents who are often battling complex health conditions.

We know that when nursing home staff members fail to properly supervise residents, a multitude of injuries and accidents can occur. Our Chicago nursing home lawyers have represented residents who suffered fatal injuries in nursing home falls because staff failed to provide proper supervision. We have also handled cases in which residents were left unsupervised and allowed to wander outside of the facility, including a case we settled for $950,000 for the family of an 85-year-old woman with dementia who wandered outside a nursing home and froze to death because of lack of supervision.

In this Maryhaven nursing home incident, the victim’s death was a result of abuse by another nursing home resident. Although the home is still trying to investigate the circumstances surrounding the victim’s death, we know that many of these resident-on-resident attacks can be prevented if a nursing home has properly trained staff sufficiently supervising all residents. We have represented families in cases such as this, including a case where an elderly resident was beaten to death by another resident. Illinois nursing home neglect lawyer Steve Levin helped the victim’s family settle the case with the home for $1.3 million.

When nursing homes in Chicago and throughout Illinois fail to properly supervise residents or maintain a safe environment for the people under their care, injuries or death may occur. When these tragic accidents occur, victims and the families of those wrongfully killed have the right to take action to hold all negligent nursing homes accountable for their failures. Illinois nursing home lawsuits compensate victims for their injuries or the loss of a loved one, but they also create awareness around the epidemic of nursing home abuse and neglect and send a message that families will not stand for substandard care. They also motivate negligent nursing home to change their policies and procedures to avoid future lawsuits.

Just like avoidable car accidents, our Chicago personal injury attorneys are always disheartened to see deadly Illinois workplace accidents that should have been prevented. Work environments should be safe, but the Southtown Star reported that for one 35 year-old Aurora man, the workplace was a deadly environment. This young Illinois man was killed in the South Suburbs this past week during an Illinois workplace accident. He was killed Wednesday in a workplace forklift accident at a Mokena landscaping business. He was pronounced dead before 8:00 AM at Silver Cross Hospital in Will County, Illinois from multiple injuries. The workplace accident occurred at Brickman Landscaping in Mokena where the Illinois victim had been moving equipment with a forklift. The vehicle flipped over and ejected the Illinois victim and then landed on him. The police reported that they turned the case over to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which investigates workplace accidents.

Continue reading "Aurora man killed after workplace accident" »

Our Chicago car accident lawyers encounter a lot of sad incidents of wrongful death resulting from Illinois car accidents, but the ones that could have been prevented simply make us incredibly sad. The Chicago Tribune reported on one such case this week. The Illinois car accident happened when a 66-year-old Illinois man was driving his tractor in an unincorporated area near Harvard, Illinois at around 11:00 AM. The 66 year-old man was ejected from his McCormick Farmall tractor as he was making a left turn after being hit by a 2006 Ford Taurus whose driver was trying to pass the tractor. The Illinois car accident victim was sent to the hospital, where he died. The other driver received no personal injuries.

Passing another vehicle is always dangerous and passing an individual so vulnerable in a tractor is even more so dangerous! The Illinois Rules of the Road, published by the Illinois Secretary of State, warns that a driver “must use caution when passing another vehicle.” On a two-lane highway, the left lane is supposed to be clearly seen and free of oncoming traffic for a distance great enough to permit passing. You are allowed to pass on the right of a vehicle when the car has enough room on a two-lane roadway and the vehicle that you are passing is about to make a left turn, like the Harvard car accident victim was.

Continue reading "Car trying to pass kills Illinois tractor driver" »

Our Chicago injury lawyers read an article that the Chicago Tribune reported today about a 42 year-old 911 operator who was killed in a a Chicago car crash while driving home from work. The person who hit her vehicle was fleeing from the police in a stolen luxury SUV when he hit the woman’s vehicle in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. The deadly Chicago car accident happened shortly after 6:00 a.m. near the intersection of Armitage Avenue and Hoyne Avenue. The accident victim was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

The driver of the stolen SUV was stopped at Blackhawk Street and Elston Avenue after the driver blew through a red light. After police stepped out of their vehicle, the suspect in the SUV reversed the car and struck the car of a police supervisor who was on the scene. The suspect then fled the scene in the vehicle. Chicago police officers followed the SUV, which was later reported stolen, as the suspect blew threw another stop sign and then struck the 911 operator’s vehicle when the Chicago car crash victim was traveling westbound on Armitage, only slightly over a mile from the original police stop.

Continue reading "Chicago 911 operator dies after fugitive hits her vehicle in Bucktown" »

Our Chicago food poisoning lawyers worry whether the U.S.A. is adequately protected to avoid an E. coli outbreak on the scale of the outbreak Germany and Europe is suffering now. The deadly outbreak of food-borne illnesses may seem a distant threat, but one recent editorial in the New York Times urges readers not to become too complacent.

As we all know, germs have a way of traveling and though our country's food safety systems are much improved, they are still not built to detect and prevent the spread of rare, dangerous forms of infectious agents. The deadly E.coli outbreak has been all over the news, but in case you have not heard, it has caused 2900 cases of illness, including more than 750 cases of serious kidney failure and 27 wrongful deaths. First, officials were blaming imported produce from Spain, then they blamed the food poisoning on beat sprouts from an organic farm in Germany. They have yet to pin down the cause. As time passes, it becomes more difficult to do so; people forget what they ate, contaminated food is thrown away, and farm equipment is disinfected.

Continue reading "Could we too suffer an E. coli outbreak? " »

A Midwestern woman with personal experience dealing with E.coli bacteria recognizes how much the bacteria can change a person’s life. She is calling the E.coli outbreak in Europe horrible. The 24 year-old woman states: “It kind of makes me sick. You think they would learn by now.” Four years ago, the woman became ill with E.coli after eating a hamburger. Her life dramatically changed from the illness – after nearly a year in the hospital with brain and kidney damage along with paralysis from the waste down that ended her career as a dance teacher, the woman settled her product liability lawsuit against Cargill in 2009.

Now, the recent news of the European E.coli outbreak is leaving the food poisoning victim shocked. She stated that officials have an obligation to ensure that contaminated food products do not make it onto the market. She expressed that officials need to think about it and take their time.

Continue reading "E. Coli outbreak troubles Midwestern woman" »

Last week, a deadly E.coli outbreak hit the media and many were questioning who and/or what caused this awful product liability. You may have heard a lot about E.coli, but our Chicago personal injury attorneys realize that many people may not know that it is an infection that is caused by Escherichia coli bacteria that resides in the intestine. It is most often caused due to undercooked beef, but outbreaks can also occur where unhealthy eating habit is practiced or when food or water contaminated with that bacteria is consumed. Signs and symptoms of E.coli include bloody diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramping, vomiting, fever, bloating, and loss of appetite.

Continue reading "Determining the source of the deadly E.coli outbreak" »

With Memorial Day passed and the “unofficial” start to summer here, our Chicago personal injury lawyers want to share some tips to our neighbors on how to avoid personal injuries this summer. Many Chicagoans and Illinoisans hit the road to the lake or other roadtrip destinations, so driving safely is essential. Please drive defensively and always wear your seatbelts to avoid serious personal injuries in motor vehicle accidents.

While you cannot control other drivers’ behavior when they get behind the wheel, you can control your own. Pay attention to the road; do not fall victim to distractions. Please do NOT text or call and drive! Using a cell phone while driving, whether its hand-held or hands free, delays a driver’s reaction as much as have a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent!! According to the U.S. Department of Transportation and Distraction.gov, twenty percent of motor vehicle accidents resulting in personal injuries in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. Of those who were killed in distracted-driving-related crashes, nearly a thousand of the wrongful deaths involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction! Further, some astounding numbers from 2009 should give you pause before you pick up that cell phone behind the wheel. 5,474 people were killed in U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving.

Continue reading "Injury attorney advice to Chicagoans: have a safe and injury free summer!" »

Federal regulators recently announced a product recall that may hit close to Illinois homes this Memorial Day weekend. Many pools across the country will need to replace faulty safety equipment that can lead to swimmers getting trapped underwater and drowning. The product recall of pool drains involves 1 million covers. The timing of the product recall by the United States Product Safety Commission (CSPC) made many pool owners and operators frustrated. Our Illinois product liability lawyers hope that such action will prevent injuries or deaths. Pool owners and operators have, in the recent years, installed safety equipment; unfortunately, this has failed to make these drains safe. Hiring a pool professional to replace drains can cost hundreds of dollars, which frustrates the homeowners and operators. The CPSC noted that larger pools with multiple drains or gravity draining systems will not need to close, but those with a single main drain will need to close if their drain is one of those recalled.

The danger of pool drains, which may seem harmless, occurs when the drains do not have proper covers. Then, the drains can act like supercharged vacuum cleaners, which are capable of trapping people under water with hundreds of pounds of suction force. Earlier this year, a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed how pool drain covers failed safety tests. The investigation revealed a confidential report where witnesses to tests concluded that some pool drain covers certified that the drains could result in “serious injuries and/or death.” The CPSC had also fielded safety complaints about the drain covers for more than two years, but did not launch any investigation until last year.

Continue reading "Chicago Injury Lawyer Alert: Pools may be affected by product recall of drain covers" »

A Chicago car accident early this morning resulted in two deaths and four receiving serious personal injuries. Early this morning at 5:15 a.m., two vehicles crashed into a PLS Check Cashiers store in a Chicago neighborhood on the Northwest side of the city. The two who were killed in the Chicago car accident were two individuals in their fifties who were on a cleaning crew that had been working downtown and were heading back to their homes. Both were pronounced dead at a Chicago hospital shortly after the Illinois car crash.

Police reported that two cars were involved: a beige Hyundai and a black Honda. The Honda vehicle hit a street light and both cars then hit the PLS Check Cashiers store. Emergency personnel responded shortly thereafter and everyone was listed as being seriously to critically injured. Six ambulances responded to the accident scene. A nearby neighbor, who lives only one block away from the accident site, was awakened by the sound shortly after 5:00 a.m. this morning. He recalled that three young people were in the Honda and three older people were in the Hyundai; he stated that one was really seriously hurt and the other person was not really moving at all. He stated that emergency personnel had to use the jaws of life to remove a person from the car and CPR was being performed on another victim that he observed. The neighbor stated that the other three victims were sitting next to the car trying to figure out what happened with the Chicago car accident. All six individuals were treated at local hospitals.

Continue reading "Chicago car accident results in two deaths, four injured" »

An Illinois bill that could save student lives is awaiting Governor Quinn’s signature. The bill was prompted after the death of a Chicago seventh grade student who died after suffering an allergic food reaction during a classroom party. The bill, that passed the Illinois legislature, allows school nurses to administer life-saving epinephrine injections even if the student has not been known to have been diagnosed with an allergy. Our Chicago wrongful death lawyers are happy to see this bill and hope that it is signed quickly. With young children’s current high rate of allergies, epinephrine injections could truly be lifesaving.

The thirteen year-old seventh grade student passed away of anaphylaxis in December after eating takeout food that was cooked in peanut oil at a school in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic reaction to a chemical that has become an allergen. After being exposed to a substance that is an allergen, the person's immune system becomes sensitized to it. On a later exposure to that allergen, an allergic reaction may occur. This reaction happens quickly after the exposure, is severe, and involves the whole body. An injection of epinephrine, which is a hormone, can counter severe allergic reactions by opening constricting breathing tubes, which improves blood circulation and reduces swelling.

Continue reading "Illinois bill prompted by student’s food allergy death awaits Governor’s signature " »

An Illinois wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of the woman who was struck and killed by a tour bus in the Steeterville neighborhood of Chicago earlier this month. The young victim was a Polish immigrant who grew up in Germany. She graduated from the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree. The Chicago wrongful death lawsuit is filed against the bus company, alleging that the bus company was negligent in hiring the driver. The driver in the Chicago car accident was arrested after the wrongful death of the 24 year-old Chicago victim and remains in jail on aggravated DUI charges. Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors report that the driver, who was 47 years of age, had cocaine in his system at the time of the May 3 Streeterville car accident. Additionally, the driver’s commercial driver’s license was suspended in August 3, 2008 when he was cited for speeding and driving without insurance, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

The Chicago Tribune reported that when the driver was arrested, officials also learned that the driver was the subject of a police investigation accusing him of sexually assaulting two girls. He was charged in those incidents. The Chicago wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the bus group should not have hired the driver because of the investigative alert and the driver’s two prior convictions. Further, the Chicago wrongful death lawsuit contends that the bus group should have known of the driver’s alleged cocaine use.

Continue reading "Family of car accident victim files Illinois wrongful death lawsuit" »

During yesterday morning’s commute, a serious collision occurred between the Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line and a trailer truck in the Mount Prospect neighborhood. The Union Pacific Northwest Line (UPNW) runs from Harvard to downtown Chicago and already makes several stops before reaching Mount Prospect. The collision between the truck and the train killed the truck driver and caused the front train car of the Metra train to derail. All of the train cars remained upright, but a few dozen passengers received personal injuries from the train accident and were taken to area hospitals or treated on the scene. None of the personal injuries received by the train passengers were believed to be life-threatening.

The derailment of the train car was caused by the impact from the trailer of the truck, which landed to the side of the intersection. The train came to a stop after clearing the crossing. However, the second car of the train was blackened from soot because the truck had caught fire. Passengers reported that the cars filled up with smoke; passengers popped out windows on the upper level of the train to exit. Many passengers apparently feared that the accident was a terrorist attack, but Mount Prospect Police Commander dismissed those fears, stating that the situation appears to be “a driver in a hurry.” One passenger noted that the impact was like an explosion.

Continue reading "Suburban Metra train collision; 1 dead and several injured" »