Friday, February 27, 2015

TRUCKER WHO CAUSED FIERY I-88 FATAL CRASH, GUILTY OF DRIVING WHILE FATIGUED. RENATO VELASQUEZ GUILTY ON 3 FELONY COUNTS IN CRASH THAT KILLED TOLLWAY EMPLOYEE AND CRITICALLY INJURED A STATE TROOPER IN JANUARY 2014.







FEBRUARY 26, 2015

DUPAGE COUNTY, ILLINOIS:
 
A DuPage County judge found a trucker guilty on felony charges and misdemeanor traffic offenses in the January 2014 fatal I-88 crash that caused the death of an Illinois tollway employee and critically injured a state trooper.

Renato Velasquez, 46, was found guilty of one felony count of operating a commercial truck in a fatigued state, and two felony counts of failure to comply with hours of service requirements. The Hanover Park man was also found guilty on misdemeanor traffic charges, including failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.

Felony charges of falsifying records were dismissed because prosecutors “could not prove that the forgeries were committed in Illinois,” Judge Kleeman said.
The convictions came Thursday afternoon after a two-day bench trial at the DuPage County Courthouse in Wheaton.

On Jan. 27, 2014, tollway employee Vincent Petrella positioned his help truck behind a disabled semi-trailer in the eastbound lane of I-88 near Eola Road in Aurora. Trooper Douglas Balder had arrived earlier and had also positioned his squad car behind Petrella’s vehicle. Prosecutors said both vehicles had activated their emergency lights, and a tow truck that had arrived on the scene to help remove the disabled semi-trailer from the traffic lane had activated its lights.
Petrella had placed flares around the scene and was sitting inside his help truck with the driver of the disabled semi. Balder had also returned to his squad car when at 9:20 p.m. Velasquez’s 2004 Freightliner semi-trailer slammed into Balder’s squad car and Petrella’s truck, causing both vehicles to burst into flames. Petrella died at the scene. 

During the two-day bench trial, prosecutors presented testimony from a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration investigator, and an FBI special agent specializing in cellular phone tracking.

Also played were portions of a videotaped interview, in which Velasquez admitting to Illinois State Police investigators that he didn’t remember anything between Farnsworth Road and Eola Road until the moment of the crash. Prosecutors alleged Velasquez had fallen asleep behind the wheel of his rig because he had been driving for 20 hours or more in violation of federal transport rules.

During his videotaped interrogation, the trucker admitted: “Maybe I was sleepy.”

Velasquez also told the troopers in the video that he did not see the emergency lights of the trooper’s squad car and the tollway vehicle that had stopped to assist the disabled semi.

The Hanover Park trucker had started out the evening of Jan. 26, 2014 for Elkhorn, NE, with a load of steel cable. He had turned around the next morning on Jan. 27, 2014 and picked up another load of steel cable in Cedar Rapids, IA, before heading back to the Chicago area.

During that period Velasquez had what amounted to about fours of sleep in a 24-hour period.

“It’s pretty conclusive that the defendant was driving straight through due the number of phone conversations in the early morning hours [of Jan. 27, 2014],” the judge said before rendering his verdict. “It’s a reasonable inference that he was awake at that time in Iowa and Nebraska.”

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said that Velasquez followed the federal commercial carrier rules by getting the proper amount of rest the crash never would have happened.

“Simply put, Mr. Velasquez’s decision to get behind the wheel of his truck while fatigued cost Vincent Petrella his life and severely injured Trooper Balder,” Berlin said in a written statement. “Had Mr. Velasquez gotten the proper amount of rest before driving, Mr. Petrella would be alive today and Trooper Balder would not be looking at a life of pain and suffering.”

Velasquez was allowed to remain out on bond until his pre-sentencing hearing on March 23. He faces up a maximum jail sentence of three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections or probation.

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TRUCKER WHO STRUCK STATE TROOPER IN FIERY CRASH ADMITS: 'MAYBE I GOT SLEEPY'.  SECOND DAY OF TRUCKER TRIAL INCLUDES INTERROGATION VIDEO AND FBI ANALYSIS OF CELL TOWER RECORDS.

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

DUPAGE COUNTY, ILLINOIS

An FBI special agent specializing in cellular analysis testified Wednesday that cell phone activity and toll records were inconsistent with logbook records kept by a Hanover Park trucker accused of breaking federal transport rules that caused a fiery crash on a frigid cold night in January 2014.

DuPage County prosecutors claim that Renato Velasquez had been driving and working 36 hours with only four hours of rest when his truck triggered a crash that killed an Illinois tollway worker and critically injured a state trooper.

Prosecutor Joe Ruggiero has alleged that Velasquez demonstrated a pattern of falsifying his logbook in the four days leading up to the crash that killed toll way worker Vincent Petrella and severely injured trooper Douglas Balder, who had stopped to help a disabled semi-trailer on I-88 near Eola Road in Aurora on Jan. 27, 2014.

FBI special agent Joseph Raschke explained how he analyzed cellular tower pings and I-Pass records to show that Velasquez’s movements didn’t jive with the times and locations in his logbook where the trucker indicated he had been working or off-duty.

According to entries in the trucker’s logbook, prosecutors alleged Velasquez said he left Hanover Park Sunday afternoon Jan. 26, 2014 to deliver a load of steel cable to Elkhorn, NE, arriving there in the evening. His logbook indicated that he was “off duty” from 9 p.m. until 9 a.m., per federal rules limiting the number of hours that truckers can be on the job.

Raschke testified that cellular tower analysis and I-Pass records showed that Velasquez didn’t set out for Nebraska until Sunday evening.

“I-Pass records and cellular tower activity indicate westbound travel at 6:45 p.m. [Sunday Jan. 26, 2014],” the special agent said. “From 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. [Monday, Jan. 27, 2014] there is cellular phone activity in Elkhorn, NE.”

Illinois State Trooper and investigator Adam Miklaszewski also testified how he and another trooper interviewed Velasquez hours after the crash at Mercy Hospital in Aurora. Miklaszewski stated Velasquez appeared alert and had waived off using a Spanish translator.

Playing select video clips of four hours of interviews and interrogation of the trucker, Velasquez stated that he didn’t remember anything between Farnsworth and Eola Roads on I-88 until the moment of impact at 9:20 p.m. Jan. 27, 2014, when his rig plowed into the back of Balder’s and Petrella’s vehicles, causing all three to burst into flames.

Asked if he saw emergency lights ahead, Velasquez stated on the video that he didn’t see anything except for “light posts.”

“I don’t remember seeing police lights,” the Hanover Park man said.
When Velasquez was released from the hospital after 2 a.m. Jan. 28, 2014, he was then brought to the Illinois State Police district office in Downers Grove where the interrogation continued the next morning.

Insisting that he hadn’t seen the police emergency lights on Balder’s squad car or Petrella’s “help truck” until the last second when he tried to swerve around both vehicles, Miklaszewski tells Velasquez that he “you forgot to tell us something.”

“There are no overhead lights on the straight road,” Miklaszewski says on the video. “You were either asleep or doing something or you’re lying to me. You don’t look like a man who’s a liar but I can see you are holding back.”

After several hours of interrogation Velasquez later admits that “maybe I got sleepy, all I remember is changing the lane.” He also admits to the troopers that he falsified his logbook “because that’s how you make money,” Miklaszewski testified.

Miklaszewski also testified that Velasquez took video with his cell phone of another semi-trailer crash at the Illinois-Iowa border around midnight Jan. 26, 2014, when the trucker was supposedly resting and sleeping in Elkhorn, NE, according to his logbook.

Velasquez’s attorney Steve Goldman suggested on cross examination that the troopers’ interrogation techniques when his client was tired and traumatized from the accident elicited false answers that he had fallen asleep or had faked logbook entries.

At the end of the second day of testimony, Goldman filed a motion to dismiss both charges against his client, stating that prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Velasquez had committed a crime in Illinois.
Judge Robert Kleeman said he would rule dismissing both counts on Thursday afternoon, but admonished attorneys on both sides to be prepared to give closing arguments.


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DRIVER CHARGED IN I-88 CRASH THAT KILLED TOLLWAY WORKER

January 27, 2014

AURORA, Ill. (CBS)

An Illinois Tollway maintenance worker was killed, and an Illinois State Police trooper was injured when a semi-tractor trailer crashed into their vehicles on the Reagan Memorial Tollway near Aurora.

Charges have been filed against the semi-truck driver whose rig struck and killed a Tollway worker and injured an Illinois state trooper on I-88 near Aurora.
Prosecutors say trucker Renato Velasquez, of Hanover Park, was overly fatigued, and had been at the wheel too long — in violation of federal law.

In addition, state police say, Velasquez is charged with falsifying his log book to make it appear he was behind the wheel legally. Federal law limits truckers to 11 consecutive hours behind the wheel or 11 hours in a 14-hour period.

He faces a laundry list of charges that also includes failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and failure to yield to a stationary emergency vehicle. 

State Police Director Hiram Grau said the condition of the injured trooper, Douglas Balder, has been upgraded to serious and that he is expected to recover. 

Balder and tollway worker Vincent Petrella were trying to assist a disabled motorist when Velasquez’s rig hit them.

CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli reports, around 9:45 p.m. Monday, Illinois State Trooper Douglas Balder was helping Tollway worker Vincent Petrella work to remove a stalled semi from the tollway, after the truck broke down near Eola Road, when another semi slammed into the vehicles, and they burst into flames. That 18-wheeler partly ran over Balder’s squad car, causing an explosive chain-reaction crash.

“The impact of the crash caused all vehicles to become engulfed in flames,” Illinois State Police Lt. Bob Meeder said.

Petrella, 39, was pronounced dead at the scene. 

“We’re extremely thankful that he’s able to survive. If you see the condition of the vehicle, it’s a miracle,” said State Police Director Hiram Grau. 

Grau said the wreck likely could have been avoided if the truck driver who plowed into the stopped vehicles had followed the law, and pulled over to the left lane when he spotted the flashing lights from the trooper’s vehicle.

“If you see those flashing lights, you see emergency workers, you get as far away from them as you possibly can,” he said.

Petrella is survived by a wife and two children. He had been working for the Illinois Toll Highway Authority since 2001. He started as a toll collector, and most recently was working as an operator laborer since 2005.

Tollway officials said Petrella was a family man committed to doing his best every day to serve tollway customers.

It was the second time in the past year that an Illinois state trooper’s vehicle was struck by a semi while stopped on an Illinois tollway.

In March 2013, Trooper James Sauter was killed when a truck hit his squad car while he was stopped on the shoulder of Interstate 294 near Willow Road. A trucker from Wisconsin was charged with felony violations of truck driver regulations, after allegedly falling asleep at the wheel