Chicago police are searching for the driver of a red Chrysler Sebring with Iowa tags that collided with a taxi in downtown Chicago at 5:20 a.m. Sunday, killing the driver and a passenger.
The Sebring driver was wearing a suit, had a bloodied head and was toting a briefcase when he ran from the accident at Randolph Street and Wacker Drive, witnesses told police.
The Checker taxi driver was identified as William J. Atta, 44, of the 7200 block of South Damen Avenue. The passenger was not carrying identification and had not been identified Sunday evening. Police said he was African-American and between 30 and 45 years old.
There are traffic lights at the intersection, but police said witnesses were unclear about who was at fault in the accident.
The taxi, traveling north on Wacker, was hit on the front passenger side by the Chrysler that was going west on Randolph. The taxi driver was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at Northwestern University Hospital, police said. The passenger was pronounced dead at Cook County Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Investigators said they had not located the owner of the Sebring.
It was unclear where the passenger was picked up or his destination, police said. A spokesman for Checker Taxi Association declined to comment.
A spokesman with the Illinois secretary of state’s office said Atta had a clean driving record.