Days after a man was fatally struck by a hit-and-run SUV driver in River North, there were still chunks of road salt on the west side of LaSalle Street just north of Chicago Avenue. According to a security guard at a nearby building, city workers hosed the victim’s blood off the street after the crash and spread the salt to keep the pavement from icing over in the freezing weather.
On Sunday, March 24, 2012, around 2:30 AM, 32-year-old Northwestern University law student Jesse Bradley was crossing LaSalle westbound on Division when he was struck and killed by Bianca Garcia, 21 at the time, who was speeding south, according to police. Garcia, who was found to have twice the legal blood alcohol limit and a cocktail of hard drugs in her system, fled the scene but was soon arrested. She was eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The problem starts at North Avenue, where the street links up with Lake Shore Drive, taking an S-shaped east-west route through the south end of Lincoln Park. Motorists coming off the Drive tend to pass through the park at expressway speeds. Then, when motorists reach the north-south portion of LaSalle, the street’s wide layout and multiple lanes encourage them to treat this surface road like a highway.
Whitehead noted that LaSalle and Chicago, where Levato was killed and the second man was critically injured, is a particularly dangerous junction. Chicago Avenue also has five lanes, and the corners of the intersection are rounded, which makes it easy for motorists to speed through turns.
“Through the Vision Zero process, CDOT is analyzing crash data to determine how we can make targeted investments to improve safety at specific locations,” he says.
