Throughout much of Illinois, the malls, shopping centers, and retail districts were pretty busy on the weekend before Christmas, as last-minute shoppers hurried to finish up their gift-buying for the holiday. For the most part, everyone made their purchases, survived the somewhat stressful ordeal, and went on to celebrate a nice Christmas. But that wasn’t the case for two people in the Chicago suburb of Mundelein.
Around 5:15pm on the evening of Sunday, December 22, a Toyota Camry carrying a man and a woman was trying to pull out of a parking lot of a shopping center on Illinois Highway 60 near U.S. Highway 45 (less than a mile southeast of Diamond Lake). But a BMW 318ti that was driving west on Highway 60 slammed into the driver’s side of the Camry. The woman in the Camry was rushed to a Libertyville hospital in critical condition; but its driver, a 34-year old man from Zion, succumbed to his injuries at that hospital.
Mundelein police are still investigating the auto accident, and no citations have been issued as of yet. Alcohol doesn’t appear to be a factor, though the roads were wet at the time of the crash.
In most cases, any driver pulling out of a parking lot must yield the right-of-way to vehicles on the roadway. If the investigation determines that the Zion man failed to yield, then he will be held responsible for the auto accident and its consequences; and the female passenger could file a personal injury lawsuit against his estate (assuming the two are not related). However, if authorities determine that the BMW driver is at fault, then its driver could be named as the defendant in the woman’s personal injury lawsuit – as well as a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the surviving relatives of the 34-year old Zion man.