Injured Trooper Recalls 'Waking Up Burning Alive' In Trucker Crash Trial

Caption: Renato Velasquez

A state trooper recounting how he woke up “burning alive” in his squad car capped off a day of dramatic testimony in the trial of a Hanover Park trucker accused of felony safety violations that triggered a fiery, fatal crash on Interstate 88 in January 2014.

Renato Velasquez, 46, who is facing felony charges of driving a commercial vehicle while fatigued and falsifying his log book, was still as injured state trooper Douglas Balder recalled the events of Jan. 27, 2014, when he and tollway worker Vincent Petrella had stopped to help a disabled semi-trailer on I-88 near Eola Road in Aurora.

DuPage County prosecutor Joe Ruggerio alleged in opening statements that Velasquez falsified his logbook, dozing off behind the wheel of his Freightliner semi-tractor after driving and working 37 out the prior 40 hours, while hauling 21 tons of steel cable.

Velasquez’s rig slammed into Balder’s squad car and Petrella’s “help truck,” causing all three vehicles to burst into flames. Petrella died at the scene.

“I was sitting in my car and at some point I woke up and was burning alive,” Balder said. “My hand felt like it was melting.”

Looking for a way out of the flames, Balder said he tried opening the car door “but it didn’t work.” Eventually, he was able to crawl out of his burning vehicle where he was found “smoldering” at the side of the interstate.

“I was walking on the shoulder when another trooper told me I was going to the hospital,” Balder testified. “I tried to remove my weapon and give it to him because it was procedure, but couldn’t because it had melted.”

The next thing Balder remembered was waking up in a hospital six weeks later when his wife told him he had been in a coma.

Retired tollway worker Ralph Dickinson recounted the last moments of Petrella’s life when they set up flares around the disabled semi-trailer, the trooper’s vehicle, their tollway “help trucks,” and a heavy duty tow truck that had arrived to pull the semi-trailer out of the lane of traffic.

Afterward, Dickinson left on another call to assist a disabled motorist.

“I radioed Vince,” Dickinson said. “He told me I didn’t need to come back. He said he was lighting more flares.”

Moments later, when Dickinson heard over the radio that Petrella was not responding to dispatch, he turned around and headed back to mile marker 122 near Eola Road when he saw smoke and fire.

“I saw Vince’s truck with half of it crushed on the driver’s side,” Dickinson said.

The driver of the disabled semi-trailer, Xhelaj Agron, was sitting in the front passenger seat of Petrella’s help truck keeping warm on the sub-zero night, watching the tollway worker light more flairs.

“I felt a heavy impact and heard a big truck,” Agron said through a court interpreter. “The [tollway] truck caught fire. I was also injured. I couldn’t see [Petrella’s] head, only his body. I rolled down a window and was able to get out of the truck.”

Agron testified that he saw Velasquez’s white Freightliner in the ditch.

“I went to check on the people,” Agron said. “I talked to the guys working on my truck. I told them, ‘your friend needs help.’”

Prosecutors also played video from the camera mounted on an Aurora police car rushing to the scene of the accident and a 911 call placed by Velasquez.

The Hanover Park trucker’s attorney, Steve Goldman, objected to prosecutors’ repeated questioning of witnesses of still photos of the wreckage, stating they were “inflammatory and humiliating” to his client.

At the end of the first day of testimony, Goldman badgered Illinois State Trooper Troy Osborne on his qualifications as an accident scene re-constructionist.

Osborne stated that Velasquez was traveling at a speed of 60mph and that tire marks on the highway indicated there was no pre-impact braking, based on the the debris field at the accident scene and the Freightliner’s final resting place.

Goldman showed Osborne a written report by a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, indicating that data from the Freightliner’s “black box” showed that the vehicle was traveling 62mph when it began to suddenly de-accelerate and the brake was applied.

Osborne said he had not seen the NTSB’s written report of Jan. 9, 2015, prior to making his own report. Although he was not certified to analyze black box modules, he based his report on his own observations and from raw data that the NTSB investigator downloaded for him on his laptop.

Co-prosecutor Nicole English said on redirect that the NTSB report still didn’t indicate if the braking came before or after impact.

Judge Robert Kleeman wants to finish the trial on Wednesday, when prosecutors say they will wrap up their case by calling five more witnesses.