Illinois Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Christopher Jenkins, 45. was struck and killed on I-80 early Tuesday morning while working patching potholes.

A co-worker stepped in front of the car to keep it from driving away, but the driver of the car that struck Jenkins fled on foot . Jenkins was hit with such force that he was sent through the windshield of the car that struck him.

Jenkins was married and had to children. He was working on the potholes in the center lane on I-80. The area was marked a construction zone just east of Central Avenue according to authorities. Jenkins was employed by Waslh Construction a Chicago based company.

John Olson, of Mundelein, was piloting a small aircraft on is way home from Michigan. John's wife deborah and their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren were also on board. John was preparing to land his plane at a small Grayslake airport when the plane clipped a deer.

"We're just getting ready to touch down when the three deer came darting out from the north side crossing the runway, and one of the decided to sotp."

After striking the deer, John looked out the window of the plane and notice that the landing gear had been damaged. Instead of landing in Grayslake because it's an uncontrolled airport, John decided to fly to Wheeling and land at the Chicago Executive Airport. The flight too Wheeling took ten minutes. Olson said he was sweating, but felt calm.

Grayslake Airport officials said that in the over 40 years of operation they had never seen a deer get struck by a plane. The area surrounding the airport is wooded but the airport is not fenced in. Jim Tahaney, the manager of the Campbell Airport in Grayslake says that is was a good thing that John Olson was an experienced pilot. Someone with less experience may have run the plane off the runway.

Olson has been flying for over 15 years. Surprisingly, the landing was smooth even though the plane had sustained some damage from the collision with the deer.

Illinos prosecutors are pursuing a reckless homicide charge against a state trooper who was driving in heavy holiday traffic at speeds of over 100 miles causing an accident killing 2 people.

State Trooper Matt Mitchell was driving at 126 mph in order to reach an accident scene on I-64 which has already been responded to by serveral emergency vehicles.

Killed in the accident were Jessica Uhl 18 and her sister Kelli Uhl 13. Injured in the accident was Kelly marler and his then-pregnant wife Christine.

Trooper Mitchell was speeding to the accident with people trapped in a burning car.

Prosecutors dispute that fact. They say the only car that was on fire was the car that Mitchell struck.

St. Clair County Assistant State's Attorney Jim Piper is asking the judge to allow the charges of reckless homicide against Trooper Mitchell. "A 'person of ordinary intelligence' would know that a trooper does not engage in such conduct, especially in light of the the fact that the defendant was responding to a secured accident scene to essentially write a report."

John O'Gara, Mitchell's attorney has asked the judge to dismiss the state's charges. O'Gara says Mitchell wasn't aware that he was breaking the law when he was driving at those speeds.