Drunken driving and speeding, not a pursuing police car, were the likely causes of a Thursday morning car accident that left three people dead and one critically injured in Orland Park, police said.
Preliminary tests show that James Billis, 36, had a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit when he drove a car reported stolen off Wolf Road and into a drainage ditch, said Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy.
Billis of Chicago was in critical condition in Loyola University Medical Center late Thursday. Three passengers in the car were killed: Terrence Heidegger, 24, and Richard Tracy, 23, both of Orland Park, and Erin Hitch, 21, of Lockport.
No charges have been filed.
The accident occurred just moments after an Orland Park police officer, who had been pursuing the stolen car, pulled back, McCarthy said.
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The officer had been following the Lincoln Mark VIII with his police lights activated after he clocked it going 65 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone, McCarthy said. But the officer turned off his lights and slowed down when the Lincoln accelerated and ran through a red light, the chief said. Less than a minute later, the car rammed through a guardrail and into the ditch.
Orland Park Police Department policy, which is modeled after that of the Illinois State Police, allows an officer to chase a vehicle only after a “forcible felony,” such as a rape, kidnapping or murder, has occurred. Possession of a stolen vehicle is not a forcible felony.
After talking with the officer and reviewing audio tapes of his conversation with the dispatcher, the department has cleared him of wrongdoing.
McCarthy would not release the name of the officer, who has been on the force four years.
According to McCarthy, the officer was driving south on Wolf Road near 152nd Street about 1 a.m. Thursday when he saw the northbound Lincoln and clocked it at 65 m.p.h. The officer radioed the license plate of the car to a dispatcher, reversed course and followed the car, police said. About 147th Street, he activated his emergency lights but not his siren, police said.
As a dispatcher told the officer the Lincoln was stolen, the car accelerated and went through a red light at 143rd Street, McCarthy said. The officer turned off his flashing lights, slowed his vehicle to about 50 m.p.h. and continued following the car, McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the officer was not chasing the suspect because he never activated his siren. He also noted that the officer turned off his emergency lights and slowed down once the car accelerated.
As the Lincoln sped north on hilly Wolf Road, the officer lost sight of it. Less than a minute later, the officer topped a hill near 141st Street and saw the car sitting in a drainage ditch on the opposite side of the road.
A preliminary investigation showed the car was traveling 70 m.p.h. to 80 m.p.h. when it crashed, McCarthy said. All the occupants were ejected.
Police said they found a cooler containing open cans of beer near the Mark VIII.
Police said one passenger told them another passenger had fled after the accident. After a search of the area and a check of hospitals, police have determined only four people were in the car, McCarthy said.
Police said they do not know where the four people had been before the accident, McCarthy said.