Toll Booth Crash Kills 2

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Nov 8, 2004 12:42PM

IL police are investigating what caused an accident that killed a pregnant mother and her 1-year-old son at a toll plaza near suburban Justice. The accident happened when a semi slammed into the 82nd Street tollbooth and landed on a car on Interstate 294. The photos from this accident are pretty horrific.

27-year-old Yolanda Martinez-Miranda and her son Everardo Miranda died after being crushed by the truck. 3 other passengers in the car, the semi truck driver, and 4 tollbooth workers were injured in the accident.

Tesheana Sims, a tollbooth worker, says, "everything was coming toward me" -- first, the semi-truck, and, next, the contents of her tollbooth, which had just been broadsided by it. Adding, "I just went down with the booth. I fell into the lane." Sims crawled through diesel fuel and tried to get out of the booth but her jacket was caught and she couldn't escape. Ironically, the man who freed her was the trucker who's semi had crashed the plaza.

Sims is thankful to escape alive. It was a different story for Yolanda Martinez-Miranda and her young son, Everardo. Miranda leaves behind a husband of just 20 months, Everardo Sr. To make the story even more tragic, Miranda was 3 months pregnant with the couple's second child.

Toxicology results for the truck driver, Nathaniel Dozier, were negative. Dozier drives for Kennedy Transportation, a company whose drivers have been in 15 crashes, including 1 fatal accident, in the last 24 months. Witnesses say that the truck didn't sound its horn or squeal its tires before the incident, and that the truck left no tire marks. Dozier told police he suddenly "blacked out" at the wheel. So far, no charges have been filed against him.