River Forest police dealt with the aftermath of two high speed accidents on residential streets on Feb. 20 and March 2. No one was seriously injured in either crash.
The afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 20 a 16-year old Oak Park boy with a newly minted driver’s license was driving his mother’s new Honda Civic “at a recklessly high rate of speed” northbound on Williams Street when he lost control of the car just north of Chicago Avenue. The car left the roadway, struck a frozen snow bank, “went airborne” across the eastern parkway, glanced off two parkway trees, then skidded sideways approximately 100 feet back to the west and came to rest on the other side of the street. According to a police crash report, the car was a total loss.
“The last time I saw a wreck that bad, there were two dead people,” said one officer who asked not to be identified.
The 5-foot, 3-inch, 125 pound driver and his three passengers were able to walk away, though all were taken to West Suburban Hospital for treatment and released, according to police. Police had the driver’s mother bring him in to the station that evening to be interviewed. Besides reckless driving, the boy was charged with being under 18 and having more than one passenger under age 20 in the car, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, and injury to village property, that is, two parkway trees.
The boy, who was released to his mother’s custody, has a March 21 court date at the Maybrook courthouse.
On Sunday, March 2, a 17 year old Forest Park youth driving a 2006 Toyota Corolla was speeding on the 1000 block of Forest Avenue. The youth struck an SUV near Augusta Boulevard. According to Deputy Chief Kendra Sullivan, the Toyota “rolled over once,” and came to rest against a village no parking sign. As with the earlier accident, the youth was not seriously injured. He was charged with speeding and having no insurance.
