Sidney Jones was playing his saxophone under the red and white awning in front of a candy shop at the busy Loop intersection of Randolph Street and Wabash Avenue early Wednesday afternoon when he saw the champagne-colored Oldsmobile barreling toward him.
“I didn’t even have time to scream. I just ran,” said Jones, 43.
The 1983 Cutlass, driven by a 76-year-old Southwest Side woman with a spotless driving record, slashed through an unsuspecting downtown crowd, sending pedestrians scurrying, smashing into people and autos and killing two.
David Flynn, 51, of Chicago’s South Side, died of head injuries in Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Janina Laskowiecki, 66, of the Southeast Side, died in Cook County Hospital. Eleven others were injured, including two who were listed in critical condition Wednesday night.
Although police said they were still investigating, department spokesman Kevin Morison said the driver, Eleanor Soltis, 76, of the 3100 block of West 55th Street, was issued traffic citations for operating an unsafe vehicle, failure to exercise due care with pedestrians in the roadway and disobeying a red light.
Soltis was treated and released from the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center for minor injuries. Her driver’s license was renewed in August 1996 and she has an unblemished driving record, state officials said.
Under growing pressure, states have been increasing their monitoring of elderly drivers to ensure they still have the skills to safely operate their cars. In 1989, Illinois became one of the first states to require behind-the-wheel tests for older drivers, requiring drivers 76 years or older to take road tests every four years. Soltis passed such a test last year.
Police speculated that either the accelerator of the car had become stuck or Soltis accidentally pushed down on the gas pedal instead of the brake.
Although only seconds long, the short journey of the wayward Oldsmobile created a scene of devastation and chaos that left bystanders shaken.
Peter Torres, 30, had come down the steps from the Chicago Transit Authority’s elevated train platform moments before the accident. “I came down the `L’ and all of a sudden, I saw a car coming at me,” Torres said. “I jumped on the pole to get out of the way. The old lady could not control the vehicle.
“I saw a car flying in midair into a sea of pedestrians, believe it or not. People were flying everywhere. It was terrible,” he said. “I said, `Oh, my God, a car.’ All I could do was jump out of the way.”
According to witnesses and the police, Soltis had just exited a parking garage in the North Loop area when her car accelerated as she turned south on Wabash Avenue.
“I saw her swerving and then I saw her accelerating. She went between the pylons, and she hit a white Cavalier and then she hit some poor woman on the crosswalk,” said Ken Wohlbrandt, 27, a security officer who was walking to work on the north side of Randolph Street, heading east.
“The force threw her against another car, threw her a good 5 or 10 feet into the air,” Wohlbrandt said.
The driver of the Cavalier, who was struck in the intersection of Randolph and Wabash, said the collision came suddenly.
“All I know is that I glanced out at the lady that ran the red light and she hit my car and some pedestrians,” said Anthony Lane, 33, of Dolton, who was slightly injured in the crash. His wife, Valerie, 29, a passenger, was treated for injuries in the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center.
After striking the car in the intersection, Soltis’ car continued south, striking a Grand Jeep Cherokee on Wabash and finally coming to a halt in front of a candy store, after striking a light pole.
For those who arrived at the scene shortly after the 1:37 p.m. flurry, the intersection resembled a combat zone, rather than a busy Loop intersection on an unseasonably balmy early fall afternoon.
Among them were Dr. George Bridgeforth, a member of the medical staff at the Lake Shore Medical Clinic, who had once worked on a helicopter emergency medical team in California, and had often arrived at accident scenes. He said the scene he encountered Wednesday while walking home from work was as bad as any he had ever experienced.
“I was walking down Wabash, and I saw this whole crowd of people. Then I saw one body on the ground. I walked closer and saw two. Then three, then four or five, and they all had major traumas,” Bridgeforth said.
“It looked like a war zone. There were bodies everywhere and blood all around,” he said.
Bridgeforth immediately began to provide emergency medical assistance, aided by passersby, including workers from the main Marshall Field’s store on the corner and Chicago police who quickly assembled at the scene.
“Some people were very disoriented. You could feel the blood puffing from the back of their skulls. They had blood coming from their mouths,” he said
Also coming upon the scene was Cathy Ramirez, 42, who alighted from the overhead `L’ platform seconds after the accident.
“All I heard was a bunch of people screaming,” she said. “We thought something had come off the `L.’ I came off and I saw bodies everywhere.”
Police were not releasing the names of many of the injured. Among them, two were listed in critical condition: one in Northwestern Memorial Hospital and one in the Illinois Masonic Hospital and Medical Center.
Other patients were listed in good or fair condition in Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital, Northwestern and the UIC Medical Center.
Wednesday night, neighbors were quick to describe Soltis as a friendly woman active in church work who kept busy after retiring from her longtime job as a buyer in a downtown rug store.
Rosemarie Elliott, a neighbor, told of her kindness.
“She had two pigeons making nests on her windowsill last summer,” Elliott said, “and she wouldn’t close her window for a month because she didn’t want to hurt the eggs.”
