Fatal Car Crash in Chatham

By Lee Edwards | As of Friday, June 21, 2013

A car accident killed the driver of a white BMW sedan that crashed into the side of a vacant home in Chatham last week.
A car accident killed the driver of a white BMW sedan that crashed into the side of a vacant home in Chatham last week.
Photo By: Photo by Lee Edwards

A fatal car accident occurred in the Chatham neighborhood last Thursday when a white BMW sedan crashed into the side of a vacant home at 77 E. 87th St. killing the driver and causing substantial structural damage to the property.

Chicago Police Department (CPD) spokesman police officer Jose Estrada told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper, “It happened around 5:30 in the morning when a 48-year-old man was driving westbound on 87th from Indiana Ave. Looks like he was driving at high rate of speed when he lost control. The driver was pronounced [dead] on scene.”

The driver was identified as Derek Thomas, a resident of the Burnside community on Chicago’s South Side. The CPD have not yet released the actual cause of the accident.

“What I heard was three loud booms, the third boom sounded like an explosion, then when I came outside [of my home] it was a car smashed into the house and when I went over to look into the car there was a person in the car and he was crushed so we kind of put two and two together,” said Ameera Hampton who was inside a nearby home when the accident occurred.

“The impact was so bad that it shattered the windows. It was really, really bad, he died instantly and not only that if [he} had hit the [house] any harder the car would’ve been inside it,” said Grace Poindexter who, too, heard the accident and saw its aftermath.

Damage to the property was still evident the day after the collision, leaving tire tread marks in the front lawn, and a toppled, mangled stop sign. According to CTA, the #87 bus had to be rerouted around the crash site. The crash victim’s BMW dislodged a natural gas tank located at the east side of the house releasing natural gas into the neighborhood.

“We [were] smelling gas because when he hit the house the gas tank inside the house was leaking,” said Hampton.

“The collision caused the natural gas line of the home to rupture; the gas service was shut off and there were no additional reported injuries insider or outside the home. The accident is still under investigation by Major Accidents Investigations Unit,” Estrada added.

Director of Media Relations Jennifer Block, of Peoples Gas, told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper, “We were able to shut the gas off at the service line to prevent any natural gas from being delivered to the home.”

To date there have been 425 roadway fatalities in Illinois according to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDT) website. IDT actively updates the number of roadway fatalities throughout the year; last year saw a four percent increase from the year before with 957 deaths in 887 separate accidents compared to 917 deaths in 835 separate accidents in 2011.

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