An Illinois State Police trooper testified Tuesday that he was burning alive after his squad car was struck and set aflame by a semi driver accused of violating road safety laws.
Trooper Douglas Balder was among the witnesses in the trial of Renato Velasquez, who authorities say was fatigued and in violation of driving laws in the Jan. 27, 2014, crash near Aurora that badly injured Balder and killed tollway worker Vince Petrella.
Balder was stopped along Interstate 88 near Aurora on that frigid winter night to help a disabled semi when Velasquez struck Balder’s squad car, rupturing his gas tank and setting the vehicle on fire.
“At some point, I woke up in my squad car, burning alive,” Balder testified in the DuPage County courtroom of Judge Robert Kleeman, who is presiding over the bench trial.
Balder said he tried to exit from his driver’s side, but neither the door nor window would operate. He said he crawled through the passenger side window.
“I have to imagine adrenaline kicked in, and I just forced myself out of the car,” Balder said.
The force of the collision sent a 14,000-pound steel roll hurtling from the back of Velasquez’s flatbed trailer. It struck a tollway aid truck that was also parked at the scene, killing Petrella, who was behind the wheel. Balder suffered serious burns and other injuries and spent six weeks in a medically induced coma.
In his opening statement, Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Ruggiero said Velasquez had fallen asleep because he had worked and driven far in excess of laws that mandate truckers take breaks and drive no more than 11 hours in a day.
“He fell asleep because he drove too long,” Ruggiero told the judge, emphasizing each word.
Velasquez, 47, of Hanover Park, had started working the previous day and had driven to Nebraska, where he dropped off a load. He was hauling the steel rolls, which he had picked up in Iowa, at the time of the accident, which was about 9:45 p.m.
Authorities say Velasquez had rested only about 31/2 hours and had been working and driving about 37 hours, and that he falsified the logbook truckers are required to maintain. Ruggiero said Velasquez’s actions were motivated by greed — he could earn more by driving more hours than allowed by the safety laws
“This case is all about cheating to make more money,” the prosecutor said.
A tollway worker who was at the site just before the accident said Balder and Petrella had activated their emergency lights and set out a line of flares to alert oncoming traffic.
“It was lit; we like to say it’s like lighting up a runway,” now-retired Tollway Authority employee Ralph Dickinson testified.
Velasquez attorney Steven Goldman sparred with the Illinois State Police accident reconstruction investigator, who testified that Velasquez was driving almost 60 mph and did not brake before hitting the squad car.
A federal safety report indicates the truck braked at some point in the incident, and Goldman contended that without a precise location for the collision, an exact braking point could not be determined.
The trial may conclude Wednesday.