Teen Killed After Vehicle Crashes Into Child's Bedroom
UPDATED 06/15/11 5:17 a.m.
BATAVIA TOWNSHIP, Ill. (CBS) -- A teenage driver was killed, and a 2-year-old child narrowly escaped death or serious injury, when a car went airborne and smack into the child's bedroom in far west suburban Batavia Township.
As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, it all began around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on Mooseheart Road near Illinois Route 31, just outside of North Aurora city limits.
Police said they received calls about a Chrysler Cirrus going way too fast – possibly 75 to 80 mph.
The driver apparently blew a stop sign and as he headed east on Mooseheart, police said. He went off the road near where Mooseheart Road meets Route 31 at a T-intersection, police said.
The driver took the bark right off a tree, crashed through the front of a one-story yellow house, and landed in the child's bedroom. Then a piece of the car became a huge projectile.
"The motor became dislodged from the vehicle itself, and went through two other rooms of the house, and then caught on fire," said North Aurora fire Capt. Todd Zies.
The house has trees and large rocks in the front yard. The car apparently went over a bricked-in, raised flowerbed and before entering the house.
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Thankfully, the renters and their 2-year-old were in the backyard and were not harmed. But just an hour's difference, and it could have been a lot worse.
"An hour difference, according to the husband, the young child who lives in the front bedroom would have been down for a nap," Zies said.
But the driver wasn't so lucky. Max Dobner, 19, of the 1100 block of Grenada Avenue in Aurora, died on the way to the hospital.
"You never can tell when things like this are going to happen," Zies said.
The speed limit is 40 miles per hour in that area. About 100 yards west of the intersection, there are two signs that warn of the upcoming stop sign. Mooseheart Road connects Randall Road with Route 31.
The renters in the house say drivers have gone off the road and hit their lawn three times since September.
