Mother of Boy Injured by Car Urges Drivers to Pay Attention

 Posted on September 11, 2012 in Personal Injury

A 14 year old boy’s life was forever changed on a fateful day in February of 2012. Hunter Himes was on his bike traveling home from a friend’s house when he was hit by a car near Beller Drive and Lemont Road in Darien. The car trapped him underneath and made him sustain injuries that caused him to be in critical condition and in a coma. He was airlifted to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he made a partial recovery from his injuries; to this day Hunter is unable to walk or talk.

The driver who caused the car accident was Timothy J. Hagan, a 40 year old man from the 3000 block of Drover Lane in Darien. He was taking a right-hand turn onto Lemont Road, but he did not see Hunter approaching the crosswalk. Hagan was ticketed for not yielding to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

Nothing has helped cushion the blow that Hunter’s parents have felt, but when they found out that the max penalty for failing to yield to a pedestrian is only a $500 fine, they were flabbergasted. “Nothing is going to fill the void,” Hunter’s mother Terra Ihde said. “No amount of money, no jail time will replace what we lost, but it’s just another dagger in the back.” Now the parents have been crusading to stop distracted driving. Terra hopes that someday the penalties for hitting a pedestrian will match the penalties for hitting a road construction worker, nearly 14 years in prison and fines up to $10,000.

The state of Illinois has been doing their part as well. Since the accident, laws have been passed outlawing things like cell phone use in construction zones, texting while driving and the use of any handheld device while driving. Nothing can replace the loss of a loved one, but filing a personal injury suit can assist in paying for hospital bills and other expenses from an injury caused by the carelessness of another. If you have experienced any car accident, contact a dedicated personal injury attorney in DuPage County to examine the particulars of your case.