5-year-old dies after he’s buried in rubble from crash, IL cops say. Dad charged
A dad high on cannabis drove into the opposite lane with his 2-year-old son on his lap and his 5-year-old son not in a car seat, then crashed into another vehicle head-on, Illinois deputies said.
The Nov. 26 crash launched a monthslong investigation that led to the arrest of the 25-year-old father from Zion, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a July 29 news release.
He was charged with two counts of aggravated driving under the influence causing death, reckless homicide, endangering the life of a child causing death and four counts of aggravated DUI, deputies said.
McClatchy News is not naming the dad to protect the identities of the children.
His 5-year-old son was found under a pile of rubble beneath the driver’s seat of the vehicle and rushed to the hospital where he died, deputies said.
The dad driving a Chevrolet veered into the opposite lane and struck a 57-year-old driver head-on, deputies said.
The dad and his toddler son on his lap were extracted from the vehicle and taken to the hospital, according to deputies.
“Before being transported to a hospital, the Chevrolet’s driver told deputies that no one else was in the vehicle. However, deputies later discovered a critically injured five-year-old boy beneath debris behind the driver’s seat,” authorities said.
The father is held in Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 7.
“This crash was not an accident, it was the result of reckless, impaired driving that took the life of an innocent five-year-old child, severely injured another child, and seriously injured an uninvolved motorist who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is absolutely no excuse for putting children, or anyone, at risk,” Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg said in a news release.
Zion is about a 45-mile drive north from Chicago.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 3:40 PM with the headline "5-year-old dies after he’s buried in rubble from crash, IL cops say. Dad charged."
