Authorities are pursuing charges against the driver who survived a fiery two-car crash that killed a 31-year-old Chicago Heights man and his 12-year-old daughter over the weekend in Chicago Heights, police said.
Police took the 41-year-old Chicago man into custody Monday after he was released from St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, where he was being treated following the Sunday morning crash at Chicago Road and Lincoln Highway, according to Chicago Heights Police Chief Tom Rogers.
“The investigation is pending, but we will be seeking charges,” Rogers said.
Jose Juan Romero and his oldest daughter, who was the front-seat passenger in the 1998 BMW he was driving, were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Three back-seat passengers, also Romero’s young children, were hospitalized following the crash, police said. His 6-year-old son remained in critical children Monday, while his 4-year-old son and 2-year-old girl were in stable condition. The children in the back seat were initially taken to St. James Hospital, but were later airlifted to Stroger Hospital in Chicago, police said.
More Top Picks Best Tonsui Bowls
Family members who were nearby when the crash occurred tried pulling the surviving children to safety as flames engulfed the BMW, police said. Officials could not definitively say Monday what happened immediately after the crash.
Romero was northbound on Chicago Road and was going through the intersection when the other driver, who was westbound in a black 2016 Nissan on Lincoln Highway, struck Romero’s BMW, police said.
Autopsy results from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office were not available Monday afternoon.
The Chicago Heights Police Department Accident Investigation Unit and members of the South Suburban Major Accident Reconstruction Team are investigating the crash.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.