Robert Vais

At a court hearing last Thursday in the case against Robert Vais, the motorist who struck and killed cyclist Hector Avalos while allegedly drunk, the defense team announced that Vais plans to plead guilty at the next hearing.

A key hearing in the criminal case against the driver who allegedly struck and killed cyclist Hector Avalos while drunk will take place on August 20.

Last Friday, exactly one year after Hector Avalos was struck and killed by an allegedly drunk driver, his family and friends gathered to remember him at the “ghost bike” erected in his honor. The white-painted bicycle, installed at the crash site on the 2500 block of West Ogden in Douglas Park, is part of a worldwide movement to memorialize fallen cyclists. Avalos’ memorial serves as a somber reminder of a valuable life lost.

At a hearing last Wednesday, Judge Nicholas Ford denied a Motion to Quash Arrest filed by lawyers for Robert Vais, the driver accused of fatally striking cyclist Hector Avalos while drunk.

Next Wednesday will be a turning point in the criminal case against Robert Vais, the motorist charged with fatally striking cyclist Hector Avalos while drunk.

Hearings were recently held for the cases of Robert “Bobby” Cann and Hector Avalos, two Chicago cyclists who were killed by allegedly drunk drivers in separate incidents last year. Each case continues to progress slowly.

Robert Vais, 54, an administrator at Stroger Hospital, is charged with a felony aggravated DUI and two misdemeanor DUI charges after he fatally struck cyclist Hector Avalos, 28, with his van Friday night. Avalos, from the 1800 block of West Cermak, was biking back to the Southwest Side after leaving his job as a cook at a Mexican restaurant in River North when Vais, a Riverside resident, struck him with his van on the 2500 block of West Ogden at about 11:50 p.m., police said.