As our Illinois auto accident attorneys previously reported, a teenager from the southwest side was killed in a collision with an Evergreen Park police vehicle back on October 5, 2010. Now the Chicago accident attorney representing the victim’s family has responded publicly to a sheriff’s report and a toxicology report obtained by the Southtown Star.
In a article published on Friday, the Southtown reported that the teenager killed in the accident had trace amounts of THC (the main ingredient in marijuana) in his system and that a Sheriff’s reconstruction report found the teenage driver had failed to yield to an unmarked police car, causing the police car to strike the driver side of the teenager’s vehicle.
The plaintiff’s personal injury attorney points out in the article that the Sheriff’s report was not critical at all of the officer’s conduct when the police vehicle was traveling 90 mph just 2.2 seconds before the crash. The police car was only able to reduce its speed down to 59 mph before impact. Further, the attorney states that the Sheriff’s report makes no mention of emergency lights or sirens because the police officer did not have them activated at the time of the accident.
The police vehicle was traveling 90 mph at the intersection of 95th St. and Central Park Avenue to pull over a vehicle for speeding.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Department also released a toxicology report stating that there was enough THC in the teen driver’s system “to have him be considered impaired” at the time of the collision. The report was prepared by a doctor from the St. Louis University Toxicology Laboratory.
Attorney Paul Salzetti is representing the family of the victim in the wrongful death lawsuit. The case was filed on October 15, 2010 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Law Division, case number 2010-L-011830. The law firm of Querry and Harrow is representing the defendant police officer and the Village of Evergreen Park.