A Berwyn man is being held on a variety of charges after he allegedly caused a nine-car crash Saturday night in which one man died.
Jimmy O. Trevino, 34, of 2241 S. Gunderson Ave., was charged late Monday afternoon with one count of reckless homicide, one count of aggravated DUI-drugs, one count of aggravated reckless driving and an assortment of traffic charges after investigators said he clipped the back of a vehicle shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday in Berwyn, killing the driver.
Phillip Johnson, 58, of the 2400 block of south Highland Avenue, Berwyn, was pronounced dead at 7:12 p.m. at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. He died of multiple injuries resulting from the car crash, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday night.
Berwyn Police Chief William Kushner said Trevino was driving westbound on 26th Street at speeds reaching between 80 mph and 100 mph when he clipped Johnson’s car.
“It caused him to be spun into a tree. At that point, Mr. Johnson’s car literally bent around the tree,” Kushner said.
Trevino is being held in the Cook County Jail without bond, Kushner said, and he may appear in bond court Tuesday morning or Wednesday. There has been a scheduling holdup because Trevino doesn’t have fingerprints.
“His fingers were amputated in an industrial accident a while ago (years ago). He has no recordable fingerprints,” he said, adding that the fingers were amputated either at the palm or the first knuckle.
Funeral services still are pending for Johnson at Michael Coletta Sons Funeral Home, 544 W. 31st St., in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, according to a recorded message Monday night at the funeral home.
Kushner said after clipping Johnson’s car near 26th Street and Gunderson, Trevino’s vehicle careened off of it, went airborne, flipped over into an inverted position, and slid down 26th Street on its roof.
“It’s amazing there weren’t more fatalities,” he said.
Two people in Trevino's car were injured in the crash and taken by ambulance to Loyola University Medical Center. They were Trevino’s passengers, Antonio Lopez, 21, of Berwyn, and Alejandro Zavala, 31, also of Berwyn, Kushner said.
A nursing supervisor Monday night couldn’t provide condition reports on these men.
Bill Hennessy, one of Johnson’s managers at Hayes Mechanical in Chicago, said he couldn’t have asked for a finer employee. He said Johnson had worked for the company for about three years as a service technician handling emergency service calls and as a commercial pipe-fitter.
Hennessy described Johnson as a jokester and fun-loving with a great personality.
“He was a dedicated employee. He always answered the call no matter what time of the day,” Hennessy said. “He was irreplaceable as far as what he brought. He was real endearing. Customers to our vendors have already been calling expressing their feelings. I hope he never saw it coming. He was a pretty special individual.”
Johnson wasn’t working when the crash occurred, Hennessy added.
Anyone who would like to make a financial donation to his family may call the company’s controller, Harry Reitz, at (773) 784-0000.
Hennessy said they had matched Johnson with young staff members in the apprentice program.
“That was the hardest — calling the kids to tell them (of Johnson’s death),” he said.
Jim Zahrobsky, deputy chief with the Berwyn Fire Department, said 12 firefighters and 10 paramedics worked to cut the men out of two cars. Seven parked cars also were hit by the ricocheting vehicles — one of which was occupied by a driver warming up the vehicle. He said five people were taken to Loyola with what appeared to be serious injuries, including Johnson.
Kushner said he didn’t have the name of the fifth individual taken to that hospital.
“We had to use the jaws of life to pull the doors off,” Zahrobsky said, and the roof was cut off of another.
He praised the firefighters and paramedics for working quickly to extricate the occupants on a difficult scene.
