A 36-year-old woman is dead and her 9-year-old daughter is fighting for her life after two men in a black SUV slammed into their motorcycle in Englewood Friday night — and the men walked away without a scratch or, so far, any reported consequences.
This is the toll of a system that treats dangerous driving like a parking ticket. A mother is gone. A child is in critical condition at Comer Children's Hospital. And Chicago's political class will offer thoughts and prayers while doing nothing to keep reckless drivers off the streets.
According to Chicago police, the crash happened around 11:20 p.m. on the 6700 block of South Damen Avenue. The Chicago Sun-Times and NBC 5 Chicago both reported that a black SUV traveling southbound on Damen struck the motorcycle, which was heading east on 67th Street. The Tribune offered a slightly different account, claiming both vehicles were on Damen — a north-south road — and placed the time closer to 1 a.m. The Tribune also failed to report that the woman had died, listing both victims only in critical condition, even as the Sun-Times and NBC confirmed she was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
NBC reported that the Major Accidents Investigations Unit is investigating. Scene footage showed a rolled-over vehicle and a motorcycle with heavy damage. No charges have been announced. No information about the SUV's two male occupants has been released beyond the fact that they were uninjured.
That's where the story ends in every outlet — and where the real questions should begin. Who are these men? Do they have prior traffic violations? Were they speeding, impaired, or driving recklessly? Have they been before? In a city where progressive prosecutors have made a habit of declining to charge repeat offenders, working-class Americans pay the price. A mother riding a motorcycle with her daughter at night deserves to know whether the man who hit her should have even been behind the wheel.
None of the three outlets pressed on the driver's history or potential charges. The Sun-Times offered the most detail on the victims; NBC added the investigative unit's involvement; the Tribune couldn't even confirm the woman had died. But all three treated this like weather — something that just happened, nobody's fault, nothing to see.
A dead mother and a critically injured child deserve more than a two-paragraph write-off. The question isn't just what happened on Damen Avenue Friday night. It's whether anyone with the power to prevent it even cares enough to ask.
