There is no doubt that the driver in a fatal motor vehicle accident is the one responsible for killing himself and three other people in a Des Plaines motor vehicle accident. However, many are questioning whether the law enforcement system itself may share a portion of the blame.

It turns out that the 21-year-old male driver that caused the vehicle accident had a turbulent history of speeding and negligent driving. He incurred his first speeding ticket just one week after celebrating his 16th birthday. Over the next five years, the driver racked up at least eight more traffic violations and had his driver’s license suspended four times.

In January of this year, his license was reinstated. Four weeks later, he chose to operate a vehicle at nearly 100 mph, resulting in a collision that took his life and the lives of three members of an Arlington Heights family. A fourth victim, a passenger in the at-fault driver’s car, lies in a medically induced coma because of his injuries.

One of the main questions about the driver is how he managed to accumulate so many traffic violations without having his license actually revoked. The answer is the timing of the young man’s offenses. In order to suffer a license revocation, offenses must occur within a certain proximity to one another.

To clarify, the young man would have had to incur four moving violations inside of 24 months to have his license revoked. Reports indicate that the driver often skirted the 24-month period by mere days.

As for the bereaved, they are struggling to cope in the aftermath. Since the driver perished in the car accident, it is unclear how the victims’ remaining family members can find closure. At the very least, perhaps this fatal motor vehicle accident will prompt victims in Chicago and elsewhere to bring responsible parties to justice through the Illinois legal system whenever it is possible.

Source: Chicago Tribune, “Driver in deadly crash never had license revoked, despite many violations,” Karen Ann Cullotta, March 17, 2017