![]() ![]() Even after a year, it’s still hard to believe what happened. “This is a pain that you don’t want, not even your worst enemy to endure. “When they called us and told us that she was on the Stevenson Expressway and that she landed under it, we were just, like: How? How does that happen?” her sister Iliana Zavala says. They went to Resurrection Cemetery, where she is buried, to release balloons bearing messages about how much they miss her. They had tumbled 60 feet off the highway - also between Damen and Ashland avenues, where there were shorter barriers then - and survived despite extensive injuries. The fatal crash last February wasn’t the first time a vehicle rode up a plowed snow bank on the Stevenson and flew off.ĭuring the epic winter of 1978-79, nine vehicles went flying off the expressway, Interstate 55, and at least one person died, according to an Illinois Court of Claims decision in 1990 in favor of a carload of people. #MILWAUKEE TRUCK OFF OVERPASS DRIVER#Even if a driver was impaired, the court also must consider other factors, including whether a government agency ignored known hazards. ![]() Under Illinois law, a “comparative fault” standard is used to decide such cases. The family is seeking $2.2 million in damages - the maximum allowed. #MILWAUKEE TRUCK OFF OVERPASS DRIVERS#31, Zavala’s family filed a lawsuit in the Illinois Court of Claims - the venue for making claims against state agencies - accusing IDOT of having failed to remove a known hazard or, at least, to have warned drivers of the danger. As with similar crashes, the accident came after days of heavy snow and freezing temperatures during which there had been repeated plowing.Īn IDOT “snow and ice control” route condition report filed the day after the crash noted the travel lanes and shoulders near Damen needed better attention, with the word “shoulders” underlined. ![]() Police photos show a wedge of dirty snow packed against the concrete barrier there. But the report also said, “The Hyundai continued forward over the wall due to the pileup of snow on the right shoulder.” SIMILARITIES AMONG CRASHES And he’d been driving at “high rate of speed,” according to an Illinois State Police crash reconstruction report. Two friends riding in the back seat survived.Ī toxicology test found the driver’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the standard at which you’re presumed to be driving drunk in Illinois. The driver, Bulmaro Gomez, 27, described on a GoFundMe page for his funeral as “extremely friendly” and “always happy,” and his front-seat passenger Griselda Zavala, 22, were killed. ![]()
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