Hit-And-Run Victim Tricia Hoyt's Family Sues Joliet Defendant

JOLIET, IL — The father of Tricia Hoyt's two small children has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Joliet criminal defendant Eduardo Avila and Avila's mother, Martha Avila, in connection with the Nov. 5, 2017, midnight hit-and-run crash along Bolingbrook's North Frontage Road that killed Hoyt.

Several days later, the Bolingbrook Police Department says it determined that 19-year-old Eduardo Avila, a student at Joliet Junior College, was responsible for the hit-and-run crash. Avila was subsequently charged at Will County's Courthouse with two felonies: failure to stop after having an accident involving personal injury or death and failure to report an accident involving fatal injury or death.

The new wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Gene Swierczewski, who is identified in court records as being the father of Tricia Hoyt's two minor children as well as special administrator of her estate. Attorney Jaime Barker of Orland Park's Law Office of J. Francis Barker is representing the plaintiff.

Hoyt was 35 years old and a resident of Orland Park at the time of her death. By the time her body was found on a Sunday morning in Bolingbrook, she had already been dead for several hours.

According to the wrongful death lawsuit: Tricia Hoyt had left her friend's house in Bolingbrook around midnight on Nov. 5, 2017, and Hoyt began walking toward a nearby gas station. She was walking eastbound on North Frontage Road near the intersection of Venetian Road when "defendant Eduardo Avila was the operator of a … 2002 Honda Accord, which he was driving in an eastbound direction on North Frontage Road … Eduardo Avila, in violation of his said duties, negligently struck the deceased, Tricia Hoyt, with the front end of his motor vehicle, causing fatal injuries," the lawsuit states.

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The lawsuit reminds the court that "following the aforementioned auto/pedestrian crash, the defendant Eduardo Avila left the scene of the accident without contacting emergency services or rendering aid to the deceased, Tricia Hoyt."

The lawyer representing the plaintiff alleges that Avila was driving too fast for conditions, that he failed to yield to a pedestrian's right of way, he failed to reduce speed to avoid an accident, failed to stop his vehicle when involved in an accident resulting in personal injury or death and failed to contact emergency services when defendant knew or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known that Tricia Hoyt sustained life threatening injuries.

According to the lawsuit, Hoyt left two minor children. The plaintiff's lawyer asks the court to award a judgment in excess of $50,000 as well as the legal costs for filing the lawsuit. Martha Avila was named as codefendant because she is the owner of the Honda Accord involved in the fatal crash.

Meanwhile, the criminal case against Eduardo Avila remains pending at the courthouse.

The case has been on the court's docket several times for the entering of a formal plea agreement, but so far, no formal plea has been signed off by Will County Judge David Carlson.

The next criminal court hearing for the defendant is set for Oct. 25.

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