Amy Skiba, 43, was driving with two children, both 12 years old, when an oncoming driver lost control of his vehicle, crossed the center line, and struck Skiba’s vehicle head-on. Skiba suffered fatal injuries. She was survived by her husband and three children, one of whom is an adult. Skiba’s…
Sammie Pendergrass, 24, was driving on a highway when Franklin Burgess lost control of his tractor-trailer, crossed the median, and collided head-on with Pendergrass’s van. Pendergrass was thrown from his vehicle into a ditch; he suffered blunt force trauma and other serious injuries. He lost consciousness approximately 30 minutes after…
Steven Parker was an employee of Black Toppers Inc. when he was driving on Interstate 95 in a Black Toppers truck pulling a loaded flatbed trailer owned by Sam’s Paving. Parker lost control of his truck, which swerved to the right, and over-corrected, which led to him crashing through the…
Jerry Troutwine, 46, was traveling eastbound on a two-lane local highway on a rainy and slushy morning. He was driving his employer’s vehicle. Justin Nichols was traveling westbound in a dump truck filled with concrete when he lost control of his truck near a downhill curve. The truck’s brakes locked,…
Janet Pulver, 66, was several yards away from an intersection when a vehicle driven by Bennett Dunbar crashed into Pulver’s car head-on. Pulver suffered serious injuries, including traumatic brain injury, and died only 28 hours later. She had been retired but was taking care of her grandchildren everyday. She was…
A Cook County jury signed a verdict for $1,100,000 for Martin Bader and his wife Julia. They sued Giovanni Melendez-Ortiz in 2015 when it was alleged that the defendant, Melendez-Ortiz, was negligent as he drove across the center line on Green Bay Road near Keith Avenue in Waukegan, Ill., and…
In April 2010, the plaintiffs Rose Schurer and Andrea DeVivo were driving westbound on Lawrence Avenue in Norridge, Ill., when an oncoming van crossed the center line and struck their vehicle. The eastbound van was driven by the defendant, 56-year-old Pawel Pawlowska. The plaintiff, Schurer, suffered four fractures in her…
In the model years 2009 and 2010, Toyota’s Corolla has been targeted as a dangerous vehicle because of the electric power steering (ETS) system. In fact, two Toyota Corolla owners, one in New York and one in Pennsylvania, filed suit. The Corolla owners have alleged that the steering system’s defect…
The Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed a defense verdict in a multi-vehicle crash on an icy Indiana highway that caused severe injuries to motorists. The big issue in the case was which state’s law should be applied at a Cook County Circuit Court jury trial. On Dec. 26, 2007, Clifford…
On Sept. 10, 2007, Paul Ermel was driving a semi-tractor northbound on Route 47 in Sugar Grove, Ill., when the defendant, Zachary McVeigh, who was approaching in his car from the southbound, attempted a left turn. He was trying to turn on at Waubansee Drive, which is the entry for…