Yet Another Hit-And-Run Driver Kills Woman In Chicago

Two elderly women were run down in Chicago’s Jefferson Park Neighborhood on Sunday, killing one woman on her 82nd birthday. The second hit-and-run victim remains hospitalized at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The hit-and-run vehicle was described as a dark blue or black Ford-150 with a ladder in the rear.

The Chicago Department of Transportation reports that 41% of vehicle-pedestrian collisions that are fatal involve hit-and-run drivers in Chicago, which is twice the national average. Chicago averages two hit-and run collisions with pedestrians involving injury or death everyday. Even though there is a law on the books in Chicago requiring drivers to stop for pedestrians preparing to cross in the crosswalk, the law appears never to be enforced. Chicago personal injury attorney Peter Zneimer witnessed at least fifteen cars fail to stop at the crosswalk as he attempted to cross Belmont Avenue near Leavitt Street in Chicago on Sunday even though he happened to be standing next to a mother with a baby stroller who was also waiting for the cars to stop at the crosswalk. No car stopped. When a gap in traffic finally presented itself attorney Peter Zneimer and the mother with the stroller practically had to run to avoid the on coming traffic that did not appear to even slow down. This crosswalk is about 3 blocks from the Belmont police station. Until Chicago police start enforcing the crosswalk laws in Chicago and start obeying the crosswalk law themselves when they are driving, Chicago will remain one of the most dangerous cities in the country for pedestrians and will continue to have more pedestrian injuries than the national average.