At least six people were killed in Thanksgiving Holiday traffic crashes in the Chicago area, according to a preliminary tally by The Sun-Times.
-A man was killed in a Chicago pedestrian accident at about 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day in the 6900 block of Cicero Avenue after a vehicle traveling northbound struck another vehicle and continued on before hitting the 21-year-old Oak Lawn man. As we noted in a separate post at Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog, the driver faces felony drunk driving charges. The pedestrian had reportedly run out of gas and climbed from his vehicle before being struck by the accused driver.
-Also on Thursday, a motorist struck a wall on I-290; a vehicle was involved in a Chicago bicycle accident in the 5600 block of West Lawrence Avenue; and a man crashed into a house with his pickup truck in the 9300 block of South Chicago Avenue. He was pinned into the vehicle and hospitalized in critical condition.
-Early Black Friday morning, a woman has hit by a car in an outlet mall in suburban Aurora.
-Friday night, a South Side one-vehicle accident sent eight people to the hospital, including six children.
-A Chicago car accident occurred early Saturday morning when a 63-year-old Joliet driver northbound on I-55 near Plainfield attempted to pass a semi and went airborne off the road. The driver was ejected from the vehicle.
-An 18-year-old Des Plaines driver was pronounced dead early Saturday after a Northeast River Road crash in which the vehicle left the road and struck a pole.
-A Chicago motorcycle accident on Saturday afternoon claimed the life of a 29-year-old Aurora man when his motorcycle struck an SUV that reportedly failed to yield while exiting a temple, as reported earlier on Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer blog.
-Saturday night a 2004 Nissan southbound on I-57 crashed shortly before midnight after the driver abruptly changed lanes and apparently lost control, according to the Illinois State Police. The 19-year-old driver was partially ejected and pronounced dead at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey at 12:07 a.m. Sunday.
-And just after midnight Sunday a rural Kendall County driver was killed when his pickup truck went off the road and caught fire after striking a tree.
The rest of the year-end holiday period is expected to remain a dangerous time for Chicago Car Accidents.
The state has launched Operation Save 100 in an effort to reduce Illinois traffic fatalities by 100 lives this year. Currently, Illinois is one of only 10 states to average more than 1,000 road deaths annually.
The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is one of the deadliest times on the nation’s roads — 27 people were killed and 2,377 seriously injured in Illinois car accidents last year over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Nationwide the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported last year’s Thanksgiving Holiday saw an increase in fatalities: 158 were killed, compared to 139 in 2007.
Statistics show drunk driving accidents and car accidents involving teenagers are responsible for a significant number of holiday traffic crashes.