Police Looked for 'Slumper' Before Fatal Oak Lawn Crash

Moments before last month’s massive car wreck at an Oak Lawn intersection, Evergreen Park police fielded a call for a “slumper” -- cop parlance for a driver passed out or in medical distress in traffic -- asleep behind the wheel of a pickup truck at 95th Street and Western Avenue.

The recordings of the 911 calls placed on Oct. 5, acquired by Patch through the Freedom of Information Act, detail the possible beginning of a tragic chain of events that left the driver of the pickup truck — Edward Carthans — and two nuns dead, and injured 23 people.

At approximately 4:17 p.m., a woman who was in a car with her father called 911 to report a driver asleep behind the wheel of a Ford F150 pickup truck in the southbound lanes of Western Avenue at 95th Street. The pickup was the same type of truck driven by 81-year-old Carthans, of Morgan Park.

Listen to the 911 calls.

“I don’t know if he’s passed out or had a heart attack but he’s not okay,” the woman told a dispatcher at Oak Lawn’s 911 Emergency Communications Center.

A male dispatcher takes the call and tries to determine the truck’s exact location of the intersection, but the woman is unfamiliar with the area. A female dispatcher jumps in and takes over the call, helping the woman and her father get their bearings by having them identify surrounding landmarks.

The woman tells the female dispatcher that she sees “the Plaza Mall” (Evergreen Plaza). Carthans and the caller are both facing southbound on Western Avenue, “on the west side of the street.”

“He just woke up,” the woman says. “We asked him if he’s okay and he says he’s okay but I’m not sure ... I think you need to have somebody come.”

The driver is identified as a black male in a white Ford F150 (Carthans’ truck was silver) by the caller.

A patrol officer was sent to look for the white Ford pickup truck. Another officer tells the dispatcher that a couple waiting at a bus stop saw the pickup truck traveling westbound on 95th and then the Ford F150 sideswiped cars in front of the Target.

According to an Evergreen Park police report from Oct. 5.:

“I proceeded from the parking lot of Walmart 2500 W. 95th St, and proceeded Eastbound to Western Ave. The vehicle was not in the area,” the officer said in the report. “I then proceeded Southbound on Western Ave from 95th Street to 99th Street. The vehicle was GOA. I continued to search for the vehicle and proceeded Northbound to 95th St. then proceeded Westbound from 95th St. and Western Ave, to 95th Street and Homan Ave. Other EPPD units also toured the area with negative results locating the described vehicle. The area was clear and the vehicle was [gone on arrival]...”

The license plate number indicated on the report matches the plate number given at the scene of the 11-car wreck just minutes later.

Toxicology and emissions testing to determine if the driver of the pickup truck was under the influence or overcome by carbon monoxide due to an emissions problem is still pending.

News reports say that Carthans had a clean driving record.

What to read next:

• Newly Released Video Shows Moments Before Horrific Crash That Killed Nuns

• Oak Lawn Cops Release Recordings of 911 Calls From Fatal Accident that Killed Nuns