Part of Chicago’s appeal as a city is its seamless ability to meld its storied past with its highly metropolitan present and future. Visitors to the city may encounter residents who have lived in the same Chicago neighborhoods for more than six decades as well as new transplants from across the country and even different parts of the world. It is a diverse community that thrives on change while holding on to the people and memories that made up its history.
The city lost a little bit of its diversity last week when an elderly Chicago woman from the Southwest Side lost her life in a fatal pedestrian-car accident. The 82-year-old victim was crossing South Narragansett Avenue a little after noon when she was hit by a delivery truck making a left turn. While the underlying story of this situation is very sad, what makes it tragic is that the 61-year-old truck driver had drugs in his system at the time of the crash.
The accident caused the woman to suffer catastrophic injuries which contributed to her death and after the accident police arrested the driver. It was after a urine test screening that authorities discovered that he had cannabis in his body and he is now being held in jail on a $150,000 bond.
In a city as large as Chicago it is not likely that most residents will notice this victim’s passing. Undoubtedly, though, her family is already grieving over the tragic manner in which her life was lost. Personal injury accidents such as this can rob a family of its control over its loved ones and can leave families struggling to make sense of difficult situations. Relatives of this victim may have certain rights under the law that enable them to pursue legal claims like wrongful death and others to bring justice to this victim’s passing and collect damages from the responsible party.
