$400K Bond For DUI Driver In Fatal Crash With Bus, Beer Truck
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Bond was set at $400,000 on Wednesday for a Blue Island man charged with DUI in a fatal chain-reaction crash with a CTA bus and a beer truck Monday afternoon.
Walter Thompson, 30, allegedly tried to run away from the wreck after the 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe he was driving crashed in the 1400 block of West 115th Street about 3 p.m., according to police News Affairs. He was later arrested at 118th Street and Ashland Avenue and taken to MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island in "stable" condition.
Thompson, of the 12900 block of Page Court in Blue Island, is charged with one count of aggravated DUI involving a fatal accident, and one count of aggravated DUI involving and accident causing bodily harm, according to police News Affairs.
Thompson was ordered held on $400,000 bond on Wednesday and a preliminary hearing was set for $500,000, Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin said.
Thompson was already issued traffic citations for the deadly crash, including DUI, damaging city property, driving with a revoked license and three counts of leaving the scene of an accident, according to police News Affairs.
One man was killed and four other people were hurt during the chain-reaction crash that sent five vehicles careening into each other and nearby pedestrians, police said. Police claim Thompson was driving the Santa Fe westbound at a high rate of speed when it hit a 1997 Ford Aerostar minivan, which then struck a 2002 Pontiac Bonneville. The Santa Fe then wedged itself between two other vehicles -- a CTA bus that had stopped to unload passengers, and a beer truck being unloaded by a worker, police said.
The worker -- identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as 45-year-old Charles Kimbrough -- was pinned between the beer truck and the CTA bus, police said.
Kimbrough, of the 14000 bock of South LaSalle Street in Riverdale, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead at 3:53 p.m., according to the medical examiner's office.
The beer truck also lurched forward during the crash and struck a second pedestrian, a 64-year-old man who was taken to Christ Hospital in "stable" condition, police said.
The 66-year-old man driving the Aerostar, the 32-year-old man driving the CTA bus and a passenger on the bus were also injured, police said. They were all taken to Roseland Community Hospital in "stable" condition.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
