Alcohol Ruled As Contributing Factor In Fatal Oak Lawn Crash: Medical Examiner

The 81-year-old driver believed to have triggered a deadly 11-car accident at an Oak Lawn intersection on Oct. 5 had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit to drive, the Cook County Medical Examiner has determined.

The driver, Edward Carthans of Chicago, was killed in the crash at 95th Street and Cicero Avenue when his truck went careening through a red light and plowed into a line of cars in the opposite lane.

Also killed were two nuns from Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Sr. Jean Stickney, 81, and Sr. Kab (Anna) Kyoung Kim, 48, who were sitting first in a line of cars waiting for the light to change.

The medical examiner said all three died to multiple injuries they sustained in the accident.

A third passenger in the sisters’ car, Sr. Sharon Ann Walsh, survived the crash but was seriously injured.

A total of 23 people were injured in the bizarre accident, which left the Oak Lawn intersection looking like “a stage of a movie set because it was such a violent crash,” Oak Lawn Fire Chief George Sheets said the day after the accident.

A toxicology report from the medical examiner’s office revealed that Carthans had a blood alcohol concentration of .179. The legal limit in Illinois is .08 percent blood alcohol concentration, Oak Lawn Police said.

News reports indicate that Carthans was bowling in a Sunday afternoon bowling league at Skyway Lanes at 9195 S. Torrence Ave. in Chicago, about seven miles from the crash site.

Around 4:17 p.m. Oct. 5, a motorist reported that Carthans appeared asleep behind the wheel of his Ford F150 pickup truck in traffic at 95th Street and Western Avenue, according to an Evergreen Park police report.

The motorist’s daughter can be heard in a recording the 911 call telling the dispatcher that Carthans said he was okay after they offered to park his truck.

Within minutes, Carthans sideswiped two cars in traffic near 95th Street and Keeler Avenue in Oak Lawn, police said.

A red light camera video shows the Ford F150 truck swerving into the oncoming lane of traffic, where the sisters’ car sat at the head of a line of vehicles stopped for a red light.

Additional testing for the presence of Benzoylecgonine (metabolite of cocaine), opiates and carbon monoxide revealed negative results, according to the toxicology report.

Illinois Secretary of State records indicated that Carthans, who resided in Chicago’s Morgan Park neighborhood, had a clean driving record.

Oak Lawn police said the investigation is now closed. Alcohol intoxication is being ruled as a contributing factor to the crash, as well as excessive speed.