My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: Illinois
Two months ago a family member was hit and killed by a wreckless driver. My sister was walking on the right shoulder of a road with two of her friends when some idiot swerved out of his lane and hit them. My sister was killed from the impact while thankfully her friends were ok. The accident occured at around 9pm while on their way to the local carnival that was in town. The accident happened almost right in front of the town high school. She was 18 years old.
I would like to know if my family has an legal recourse against the village. First, the street where they were walking along has been a safety concern for over a decade now. Over a decade ago there were complaints that the roadway was not safe and there were students walking to and from school without any type of reasonably safe way to cross the street. Since then the size of the student body has tripled and nothing was ever done. The road is also a well known speeding area and the police constantly have to patrol it for this reason. There are not even curbs on the side of the road to prevent cars from careening off and hitting students as they walk to and from school. Second, the road is very dimly lit on any given night. On the day the accident occured, the carnival was in town and 1 of the 3 routes people take to get to the carnival is by driving or walking down this dimly lit, unsafe roadway. It seems to me that the town once again was negligent by not providing any type of lighting on this roadway, especially when the carnival was in town. The day following the accident, the police did indeed setup a large spotlight to illuminate the road to increase safety for people traveling down this road to get to the carnival...something which should have been done from the very beginning.
The driver of the vehicle never stopped after the collision. Instead he just speed off and never came forward. Although the police have investigaged this and believe to know the make and model of the vehicle involved, they have yet to name any suspects. Right now it looks like they will not solve this case unless they get a break.
Thank you for reading and stay safe.

