Woman Dies In I-57 Accident Near West Pullman; Drag Racing Possible Factor

It can be challenging enough to avoid an auto accident even if you are driving at a safe speed at night. But the chances of being involved in a collision increase when there are other drivers nearby who are speeding and driving erratically.

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Sadly, this situation resulted in the death of a 25-year old Joliet woman this weekend in an I-57 accident. On Sunday morning, the GMC Yukon she was riding in was traveling on I-57 near the West Pullman neighborhood of Chicago. Near West 115th Street, the driver of the vehicle reportedly lost control as a result of two vehicles which were drag racing behind the SUV.

According to the driver, a Volkswagen Phaeton tried to pass the Yukon on the right shoulder of the interstate. The SUV swerved left and slammed into a concrete median barrier on the left shoulder of the freeway. The 25-year old woman’s head impacted the windshield, and she was pronounced dead at a hospital in Oak Lawn later that day.

The victim is survived by a 5-year old daughter; but because the Joliet woman was unmarried, any wrongful death lawsuit would probably have to be filed by the victim’s parents under Illinois law. But the precise cause of the I-57 accident is not yet clear, and authorities have not yet completed their investigation of the incident. So a plaintiff’s attorney may not know who to name as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The article implies that the Yukon was not actually struck by either of the “drag racing” vehicles. If this is true, then a case could be made that the SUV’s driver is primarily responsible for the crash. Even if the investigation determines that the Volkswagen was indeed drag racing, its driver may still not be held directly liable for the I-57 accident and the death of the 25-year old woman (although a jury could assign partial blame to one or both drivers of the drag racing vehicles).