May Was Joliet's Deadliest Month For Crashes In 5 Years

JOLIET, IL — With five traffic deaths, May marked the deadliest month during the past five years for fatal traffic crashes investigated by the Joliet Police Department, a Joliet Patch data analysis showed.

Last month also marked the first time since 2017 that Joliet police responded to at least three separate traffic crashes during the same month involving a traffic fatality.

Two of the May crashes in the city of Joliet's limits involved a double fatality.

One was the 6:22 p.m. May 26 head-on collision along Route 6 near Hollywood Road that killed 27-year-old Sara Altiery and her 6-year-old son Levi Eichelberger. The driver of the pickup truck that Altiery hit, 48-year-old Michael Ross of Joliet, has undergone several surgeries, and one of his legs had to be amputated.

On May 10, at 2:44 a.m., Jonathan Bundley, 31, and William Burke, both of Chicago, were killed when their sedan missed the curve in the roadway on Jefferson near Raynor Avenue. Their car slammed into a tree and split in half. A third occupant of their car was taken to AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center in critical condition, authorities said at the time.

And just three days earlier, at 3:24 a.m. on May 7, 23-year-old Matthew Sellers of Joliet died, and his body was burned beyond recognition when his car slammed into a traffic light pole along Route 6 and Terminal Court, not far from the shuttered Caterpillar factory.

The impact of his overnight crash knocked the traffic light to the ground, and the broken light still remained in the grass along Route 6 as of last week.

Sellers' passenger, a 34-year-old man, was thrown from the car, and survived. The passenger was listed in critical condition after the crash, according to Joliet police.

Here's a summary of the traffic fatalities investigated by Joliet police during the past five years:

2021: 11 so far
2020: 6
2019: 8
2018: 7
2017: 2

The other city of Joliet fatal crashes so far in 2021 are as follows:

June 9: Joliet motorcyclist Calvin J. Thompson, 57, was found dead at South Chicago Street and Doris Avenue. Thompson's motorcycle was hit by a 69-year-old Joliet man driving a van at 10:30 p.m. and Thompson was killed instantly.

April 14: Bernito Garcia, 41, was killed at 1151 East Laraway Road at 2:43 p.m.

March 28: Juan Pablo Salazar, 19, died at Western Avenue and Bluff Street at 7:33 p.m.

Feb. 11: John McDade, 75, died from a wreck along Larkin Avenue and Douglas Street at 3:45 p.m.

Feb. 1: Jaicely Luevano-Lara, 18, died from a crash at Louise Ray Parkway and Woodruff Road at 6:07 a.m.

Jan. 19: Roman Romero-Velazquez, 48, died from a wreck at Cass and Briggs Street at 10:22 a.m.

In addition to the 11 city of Joliet traffic fatalities so far this year, there have been three more motorcycle fatalities, just west of city limits, during the past two weeks.

This past Saturday, eight motorcycles riding together along the westbound stretch of I-80 became involved in a chain reaction crash around 10:15 a.m., killing two of the out of area motorcycle riders: 57-year-old John Melvin II of DuQuoin and Edwin Torres, 45, of Chicago.

On June 9, 25-year-old Joliet resident Devon J. Wade was rushed by Troy Fire Protection District ambulance to the Morris Hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 8:15 a.m. Wade's motorcycle wreck happened at 7:40 a.m. along the westbound stretch of Interstate 80 east of River Road in Troy Township.