A 31-year-old motorist who failed to yield while making a left turn from a side street onto a main street fatally struck a 64-year-old man in a crosswalk in the Avondale neighborhood, according to police.
At about 11:50 p.m. Thursday, the male driver of a sedan was heading east on Melrose Avenue. When he came to the stop sign at Pulaski Road, he made a left turn onto the business street.
Since there is no crosswalk at the south leg of the T-shaped intersection, it appears the victim was in the north leg when he was struck. It’s not yet clear which direction he was crossing. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital and later pronounced dead. The man’s name has not yet been released, pending notification of kin, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The driver was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk. A red light camera is located half a block south at Belmont and Pulaski. It’s not clear whether he stopped at the stop sign. Major Accidents is investigating.
This logistics of this crash seem to be very similar to the tragic collision that took the life of Noah Katz, 2, on Sunday, November 13, 2016, at around 4:10 p.m. at Giddings Street and Central Avenue in Portage Park. In that case, van driver Alexander Vasquez, 48, was also turning left from a side street onto a main street, when he failed to yield to the child and his 39-year-old mother, who were crossing in the crosswalk to the driver’s left. Vasquez was issued one citation for failure to stop at a stop sign, two for failure to reduce speed, and two for failure to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk.
Update 2/14/17 10:00 AM: Although the victim's next of kin still have not been located, in an effort to find relatives of the deceased, the medical examiner's office has released his name, Pavel Butnufski. His home address is still unknown.
Fatality Tracker: 2017 Chicago pedestrian and bicyclist deaths
Pedestrian: 3 (one was a hit-and-run crash)
Bicyclist: 1
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