Chicago pedestrian accident lawyers at our office know too well that the streets in our city can be a very dangerous place for people traveling on foot. Sometimes no matter what you do, no matter where you are, no matter how cautious you are, there are risks to pedestrians.
The Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune are both reporting that today a taxicab driver has been charged with reckless homicide for his involvement in a pedestrian collision on August 14. The incident occurred in the River West neighborhood and a pedestrian, 30-year-old Eric Kerestes was pronounced dead at the scene.
The victim was innocently sitting at a bus stop bench at the intersection of Milwaukee Ave. and Chicago Avenue. At that time a taxicab struck several light poles before hitting the bench. He was reportedly thrown 15 feet or more in the collision.
The cab driver was initially charged with driving on the sidewalk, improper lane usage, disobeying a red light, damage to public property, speeding, negligent driving and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
The victim, a North Side resident, died from multiple injuries sustained in the accident, according to autopsy results from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Two other people were seriously injured in the accident. One victim was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the other to Stroger Hospital.
According to newspaper reports, the defendant received more than 30 traffic citations from 1988 through 2009, including speeding and stop sign violations.
This accident occurred just weeks before a five-year-old child was killed in north suburban Highland Park when a vehicle jumped a curb and hit her. The Chicago Trib is now reporting that police are looking into whether the 18-year-old driver was using illegal drugs before she struck the child with her father’s car on Labor Day.
Our office works on pedestrian accident claims in regular basis. Injuries from these collisions can be severe, due to the fact that you have a motor vehicle hitting a totally unprotected pedestrian. These accidents often occur when drivers keep a sufficient lookout for other vehicles in an intersection but then fail to observe pedestrians in crosswalks.
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