DUI Charge For Driver In Crash That Destroyed Home In Hainesville
HAINESVILLE, Ill. (STMW) -- Bond was set at $350,000 for a Kenosha man charged with driving under the influence in a crash Friday in Hainesville that left a home destroyed by fire.
Grayslake police reported 32-year-old Adam R. Bileck was charged with two felony counts of DUI and one misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident in connection with the fiery crash off Hainesville Road near Patriot Drive.
Bileck reportedly was released from Advocate Condell Hospital in Libertyville prior to being charged. He was taken there early Friday after reportedly being discovered under a truck a few doors away from the crash site. A police spokesman said Bileck was "completely soaked and lethargic and hypodermic" at the time he was found.
Bond was set Sunday at $350,000 at a hearing at the Lake County Court Building in Waukegan, according to the Lake County Sheriff's web site.
Bileck allegedly drove his vehicle into the townhome, hitting a gas meter, causing a fire that destroyed one townhome and badly damaging another early Friday.
Lieka Racho, 39, and her children, two boys, ages 10 and 9, and a 3-year-old daughter, were all sleeping at 4 a.m. when the accident occurred.
"I'm not a deep sleeper. The impact was really loud and it shook our house," said Racho. "It sounded like a car was trying to reverse out," she continued, "911 was the first thing on my mind.
"Our bedroom is on top of the garage. I couldn't see anything, but it sounded like someone trying to get into the house," she added. Her husband, Frederick, 40, was at work.
"I looked out into the garage and saw flames and could hear a hissing sound," she said. Racho grabbed her children and they made it down the stairs and over to a neighbor's house. "Then we watched the flames go up in our house," she said, adding that she was thankful her parents no longer lived with her because they are older and would have had a harder time getting out quickly.
Jeffrey Myhra, operations commander for the Grayslake Police Department, said they responded to the address after a 911 hang-up telephone call and an officer was there in a minute. He broke out the back window of the Grand Cherokee Jeep to try and get the driver, but he couldn't see anyone through the smoke. The vehicle was on top of the ruptured gas line and police began evacuating the two other attached townhomes.
Myhra said the townhome adjacent to Racho's was severely damaged and that family will need to find a place to stay. A third attached townhome also suffered some smoke damage and he was not sure if they could move back in.
Myhra said the Jeep was traveling southbound on Hainesville Road and crossed over the opposite lane and off the roadway right at the Avon Township Youth Baseball & Softball Complex, hitting the sign. President of the youth league Clay Crutcher, who also is in charge of maintenance, surveyed the crushed sign for the complex.
"He really had to blast through there, he must have been going over 100 mph to go through it (the sign)," he said. "He had to be about six feet off the ground when he hit the sign," said Crutcher, noting the sign had 6x6 timbers supporting it and they were smashed and shattered with pieces strewn about.
Following tracks, you could see where the Jeep swerved after landing and then drove in between the dugout and a telephone pole, and after about 100 yards, the tracks go through a grassy area between a tree and landscaping grasses, when it turned hard left and hit the townhome.
Racho was awaiting help from the Red Cross and said she was staying with her sister-in-law Maria Racho. "All I know is my kids are safe. We are all safe," she said.
The community is raising money for the family whose home caught fire. To donate, click here.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
