Family demands justice after woman, 84, was hit, killed in wreck on Chicago's Southwest Side
Family united in pain and purpose after woman, 84, is hit and killed on Southwest Side
Family united in pain and purpose after woman, 84, is hit and killed on Southwest Side
Loved ones on Monday pleaded for better safety measures after a woman was struck and killed by a car while walking in her neighborhood on Chicago's Southwest Side.
Maria Ochoa Flores, 84, was run over when two cars collided in a Garfield Ridge neighborhood intersection this past Saturday.
Ochoa's family said two days afterward and with so many questions lingering, it was still hard to talk about what happened. But they want answers and solutions, and they said as much Monday evening.
Ochoa's family marched for justice, following in her footsteps on a route she walked every day for exercise. They wants answers and solutions.
"She was a great woman — always made sure our family was safe, always asking about her grandkids — my kids," said Maria Ochoa's son, Fernando Ochoa. "We actually live a block apart."
The family is united in their pain, and their purpose, calling for more safety measures like speed bumps and cameras — and a review of videos that may have caught the crash that killed their matriarch.
"They're both saying they both had the green light," Fernando Ochoa said of the two drivers involved in the crash on Archer Avenue on Saturday. "How is that possible?"
In an accident report, police said the two drivers were coming from different directions. A silver vehicle was headed northeast on Archer Avenue and tried to make a left turn onto northbound Laramie Avenue, only to be struck by a gray sedan headed southwest and also trying to turn north onto Laramie Avenue.
The force of the crash sent the silver car careening into Ochoa. Police arrived as two doctors tried to save her on the street, but she would die from her injuries at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
"Never harmed to no one," said Fernando Ochoa. "Just taking a normal daily walk that she did every single day to keep her body and exercise moving."
Now, Maria Ochoa's family wants to make sure they help save other lives at an intersection streaked with the skid marks left behind by street takeovers — signs of recklessness that will likely outlast the flowers left for Maria.
"You're here in the middle of the night, late at night — because my bedroom is right there," said Fernando Ochoa. "You can hear the screeching, the peeling, of people racing each other out there.
The 26-year-old man driving the silver car, the 63-year-old man driving the gray car, and their respective passengers were not injured, police said.
The driver of the silver car was cited. Wentworth Area detectives are investigating.
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