Corboy & Demetrio Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Toll Worker Killed By Sleeping Truck Driver on I-88
Corboy & Demetrio filed a lawsuit today on behalf of the family of Vincenzo Petrella, the 39-year-old Illinois Tollway worker who was killed while helping a trucker with a disabled semi-trailer on Interstate 88 near Aurora on Jan. 27, 2014.
Petrella, known as “Enzo” by friends and family, left behind a four-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter, and his wife, Sandra, who filed the wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of her deceased husband’s estate.
The lawsuit names as a defendant, Renato Velasquez, the commercial truck driver who plowed into the vehicles which caused a fiery chain-reaction crash that caused Petrella’s death, as well as DND International, the Illinois trucking company that employed Velasquez.
Shortly after the crash, DuPage County prosecutors said evidence would show Velasquez was in violation of several federal safety regulations, including those that cap the number of consecutive hours a truck driver can operate a vehicle.
Corboy & Demetrio co-founder Thomas A. Demetrio and Philip Corboy, Jr. represented the Petrella Estate.
Petrella was parked behind the disabled truck and had turned on his emergency lights, according to the complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court. An Illinois state trooper, who was injured in the crash, had parked a police car directly behind Petrella’s car in the far right lane, and had also activated his emergency lights.
Demetrio said, "These semi-tractor trailer trucks being operated by sleepy drivers turn into missiles on our highways and are just as dangerous as a loaded gun. It is our hope that over-the-road truck drivers and their employers take very good note of this lawsuit and the reasons for it and follow the federal guidelines scrupulously; and, thus, avoid sleep deprivation and the careless loss of life that this wonderful family is going to have to live with forever.“
Case#: 2014L002846 Sandra Petrella , Administrator of the Estate of Vincenzo Petrella, v. DND International, Inc. and Renato Velasquez, Cook Co. Circuit Court No. Filed on 3-10-14.