The accident, in which Toews was not injured, comes a day after WSCR-AM reported the "upper body injury" he sustained was a concussion. more ›

We can't tell which is better; is it this man's description of this car accident or is it the video editor's hyperkinetic style? more ›

Early this morning a man was struck by a car and critically injured on the Dan Ryan Expressway as he was fleeing from police after a car crash. Around 6:20 a.m., police received a call about a hit-and-run crash in the 5800 block of South Wentworth Avenue, which described a man's vehicle hitting a parked car, said Chicago Police Officer Robert Perez to the Chicago Tribune. The 911 caller directed police to the suspect, who they found at 50th Street and the Dan Ryan, where he got out of his car, ran across the northbound lanes of the expressway, and scaled a fence to get to the Red Line CTA tracks, Perez said. The man ran north along the tracks to 46th Street, and then tried to run back across the Dan Ryan, when he was hit by a northbound car. Perez told the Tribune that the man was taken to Stroger Hospital and he is in critical condition. more ›

Candis Ricks, 29, a Streets and Sanitation department worker and mother of two, was killed on Saturday after an SUV and a car plowed into each other in Pilsen. Although there was an arrest following the crash, no charges have been filed as of Saturday night. The crash occurred in the 2100 block of South Damen around 1:30 a.m., as Ricks was traveling northbound on Damen in a Ford Escape SUV when her car was hit by a Ford Focus going west on 21st Street. The crash caused both vehicles to jump the curb and roll onto the sidewalk. more ›

A lawsuit filed last Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court alleges that Cook County Sheriff's officers removed the clothing of a woman killed in a car crash and photographed several shots of her in the nude. more ›

• The State has removed and limited information about doctors available online.
• The federal government has fined Sea World over the death of Dawn Brancheau, a trainer at the Orlando location earlier this year; Brancheau was a native of Northwest Indiana.
• An overnight traffic accident killed a taxi driver and left two others hurt.

Eleven people were injured--two critically--during a three-vehicle rollover crash on Saturday afternoon near the western suburb Lisle on I-88. The accident occurred around 3:53 p.m. near mile-marker 130, according to an Illinois State Police Tollway District trooper via the Chicago Sun-Times. more ›

• Police are still investigating an overnight crash on the Southwest Side that killed three women.
• Mayor Daley is pushing forward on a plan to expand Internet access to "under-developed neighborhoods."
• A closer look at local activism against Arizona's controversial SB 1070.

For the second time in five years, the owners of the storefront located at 4055 N. Kedzie are dealing with an unwelcome guest. Overnight, a minivan lost control and slammed into the storefront, located at the corner of N. Kedzie and W. Belle Plaine. No injuries we're reported from the accident but residents of the second floor apartment were evacuated out of concerns over structural damage. more ›

Four women died around 2 a.m. this morning when the car they were traveling in smashed into a tree in the South Side neighborhood of Englewood, Chicago police said. Police and paramedics responded to the crash on the westbound side of Garfield Boulevard just west of Morgan Street, said Police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro to Chicago Breaking News. The car was traveling west at a high speed when it went off the road and struck the tree, Alfaro said. more ›

Eddie Lumpkin, 48, an auto mechanic, who was accused of driving drunk on Tuesday when he allegedly hit and killed a 6-year-old girl also admitted to smoking marijuana shortly before the crash, Cook County prosecutors said in court on Friday. Lumpkin's bail was set at $500,000 during the hearing at the 26th and California courthouse. more ›

Kristina Rodriguez, 13, was crossing an intersection in Lake Zurich with another girl, 12, on Thursday when one of them dropped a cell phone. As Rodriguez leaned down to pick up the phone, she was struck by a van driven by a 60-year-old Barrington man, police said. Rodriguez died of her injuries early Saturday at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office said. more ›

On Friday evening, nine people--including three children--were injured in a single-vehicle crash on the Eisenhower Expressway. The Chicago Fire Department responded to the crash, which took place around 5:30 p.m. near the Damen Avenue exit, and eventually brought all nine people to hospitals. The Chicago District State Police, who were investigating the accident, could only reveal that it was a single-vehicle crash and all traffic lanes had been reopened by 6:10 p.m. more ›

An unidentified woman died after her car crashed through a barrier and drove into almost 12 feet of water at DuSable Harbor in Lake Michigan at about 7:50 a.m. this morning. Chicago Police and Chicago Fire Department divers transported the woman in critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor. She was pronounced dead at the hospital at 8:49 a.m. more ›

First responders were busy on the Northwest side overnight. Just before 3 a.m., a car was involved in an accident with a garbage truck, killing two and injuring two others. The crash happened in Logan Square at Fullerton and Central Park when the car broadsided the private company garbage truck. The two injured victims were taken to Illinois Masonic and Northwestern Memorial Hospital; one of the two deaths was a man inside the car but it's not known if the second death was a passenger in the car or truck. Police also had their hands full with a series of fires across the Logan Square and Humboldt Park neighborhoods. At least six fires were reported overnight, all starting in trash cans but some spreading to nearby garages. [Tribune, WBBM] more ›

Reader Amy M. was out for a Sunday stroll when she happened upon this interesting scene near Division and Honore. We think the note pretty much sums it up. Here's hoping no one was hurt in the accident. more ›

A suburban motorcyclist died Saturday night when another driver, painting her fingernails behind the wheel, slammed into her stopped bike at a yellow light in Lake Zurich. According to Lake County Coroner Richard Keller, the biker, Anita Zaffke, died of chest and abdominal injuries sustained in the incident at the intersection of Route 12 and Old McHenry Road (pictured right) when a Chevrolet Impala rear ended her bike around 5:30 p.m. Zaffke was wearing a helmet, and was taken to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, where she was pronounced dead an hour later. more ›

Yesterday, we expressed our disappointment that Jeanette Sliwinski was being released after serving less than three years for killing three local musicians in a suicide attempt car crash in 2005. In spite of how we feel about the situation, we're further disappointed by the fact that Sliwinski has received death threats, forcing police to stand guard outside her family's Morton Grove home. The Illinois Department of corrections received the threats shortly before Sliwinski's release yesterday. Said police Commander Brian Bolger, "We're hoping it was a random type of baseless threat, but we still take all threats seriously." more ›

Last week, we mentioned ex-model Jeanette Sliwinski, who killed three local musicians in a suicide attempt car crash, was set to be released. Today, her day of freedom has arrived as the Morton Grove woman was released from the Lincoln Correctional Center this morning. While we do have some sympathy for the mental illness that Sliwinski suffers from, to say that the time she served for killing three people is just a slap on the wrist is still a gross understatement. While Sliwinski spent a little over two years in jail awaiting trial, she ultimately served only 10 months of her four year sentence. Michael Mette, the Chicago Police officer who was arrested in Iowa on assault charges and is now free, received a longer sentence for punching a guy in the face. Michael Dahlquest, John Glick, and Douglas Meis are not coming back and someone should have to answer for this. But we guess it won't be the person who killed them. more ›

Ex-model Jeanette Sliwinski, convicted of killing three local musicians in a suicide attempt car crash, will be released from prison next week three years after receiving an eight-year sentence causing outrage among the relatives and friends of the three men killed. Michael Dahlquest (39, left), John Glick (35, right), and Douglas Meis (29, center) were killed on July 14, 2005 on their lunch break when Sliwinski, driving over 90 miles-per-hour, slammed into their car in Skokie; Sliwinski suffered a broken ankle. Sliwinski was convicted of three counts of reckless homicide, though prosecutors originally sought first-degree murders and a 30-year sentence. The presiding judge, Cook County Circuit Judge Garritt Howard, citing her lack of violent history and mental state, reduced that sentence. Sliwinski's release is due to "a sentencing law that governs many Illinois crimes other than murder and routinely cuts sentences in half." more ›

An Austin man was killed in a car crash Wednesday, just hours before his home and business went up in flames. James Phillips called 911 yesterday morning from behind the wheel, saying he was having an asthma attack. Around 10:30, he lost control of his Escalade, crashed into a pole and died. Then nine hours later, his barbecue restaurant and catering business Phillips Ribs and his home above the restaurant on 5048 W Chicago Ave on caught fire. more ›

An update on yesterday's bizarre car crash: 25-year-old Gerald Richardson of Evanston has been charged with criminal damage to property for crashing a Mazda minivan into ABC 7's studios. Witnesses say Richardson made "four or five U-turns" before plowing through the windows, but the exact cause or reason for the crash still isn't clear. Richardson's sister says he's "going through some emotional times." more ›

Some news of the weird to keep us going: A pissed off son drove his Grand Am into the front of his parents' house and parked in the living room in Monee last night. While the police say the guy wasn't drunk, they say he was apparently "disgruntled" and may have carried out the sensational act on purpose. He didn't hurt anyone, but he did hurt the entertainment system when he parked on top of... more ›

The Lake County Sheriff says the crash that killed 14 horses was "completely avoidable and inexcusable." The driver, James E. Anderson, 34 of North Dakota, was hauling 59 Belgian draft horses in a double-decker semi truck. He's been charged with disobeying a traffic control device and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, and he may face additional charges. Apparently 59 horses is way too many to pack in one truck; according to one... more ›

There will be no Cubs-Cardinals endgame to their current series. The Cards have postponed tonight's game at Busch Stadium due to a death in the family. 29-year-old relief pitcher Josh Hancock died in a car crash early Sunday morning. Hancock, driving alone in his 2007 Ford Explorer, struck the rear end of a tow truck that was stationed in the left lane. The Cards pitcher died at 12:35 a.m. at the scene; the unidentified tow... more ›

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay... more ›

Thanks to wcityw for helping us get revved up for this weekend's amateur drinking night! more ›

Another weekend, another chance to get into trouble: For the third week in a row on the Blotter, multiple teens died in a car crash this weekend. Nine young people, ages 14 through 23, packed themselves into a four-door sedan in Oswego early Sunday morning. The driver and only non-teen, 23-year-old Sandra Vasquez, slammed into a utility pole, killing four passengers and injuring the rest. Vasquez has been charged with driving under the influence. The... more ›

Over the past year, it seemed as though a story about a car crash involving teens was on the Tribune’s Web site nearly every week. Apparently Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White noticed it, too, and will propose legislation to enhance the state's Graduated Licensing Program, aimed at curbing teen accidents later this week. Under White’s recommendations, a learner’s permit will no longer be the speedy ticket to a driver’s license, but would triple the... more ›

As we nurse a post-club bodyache, we offer you this weekend's crime rundown: more ›