• 19
  • January
    2012

Two years after the fatal crash that left an 18-year old Wheaton, Illinois, man dead, the details of the fatal accident are finally coming to light. A 21-year old Southern Illinois University Carbondale student was recently arrested and is thought to be the driver of the car that crashed into a tree, wounding the 18-year old passenger who later died from his injuries.

Prosecutors believe the 21-year old was behind the wheel of his Volkswagen GTI that ended up smashed against a tree on Oct. 5, 2009. Instead of calling for help after crashing his car, he left his friend "bleeding to death" inside the mangled vehicle. When he eventually notified police, he told them that his friend had stolen his car and that he wasn't sure where he was, denying that the injuries he sustained in the accident were anything more than the result of a fight. Prosecutors think that because the 21-year-old was underage and supposedly intoxicated at the time of the accident, he left his friend to die.

After the accident, the suspect is believed to have returned to the party that he was at prior to getting behind the wheel of his car. The victim was found by police over an hour after the crash and died 12 hours after he was taken to the hospital for massive head trauma. The suspect never asked how his friend was doing as police brought him home.

The man claimed that he was not in the car at the time of the accident, but physical evidence was found on the scene, as well as on his person, linking him to the scene of the crime. While it is unclear if the passenger would have survived if the driver had called for immediate medical help, it appears that the driver was fully responsible for this tragic accident.

Source: Daily Herald, "DuPage prosecutors detail arrest in fatal crash," Josh Stockinger, Dec. 21, 2011