Blue Island man charged with DUI in fatal crash with bus, beer truck

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Updated: March 23, 2012 8:11AM

A Blue Island man allegedly was intoxicated when he caused a chain-reaction crash that fatally pinned a worker unloading a beer truck against a CTA bus Monday afternoon on Chicago’s South Side.

Walter Thompson, 30, of the 12900 block of Page Court, was charged with DUI, damaging city property, driving with a revoked license and three counts of leaving the scene of an accident, police said. Thompson may face additional charges after an investigation by the Major Accident Investigation Unit, police said.

Thompson tried to run away from the wreck after the 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe he was driving crashed in the 1400 block of West 115th Street about 3 p.m., according to police. He later was arrested at 118th Street and Ashland Avenue and taken to MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island in stable condition.

Four other people were hurt during the crash that sent five vehicles careening into each other and nearby pedestrians, police said.

Police claim Thompson was speeding westbound in his Santa Fe when it hit a 1997 Ford Aerostar minivan, which then struck a 2002 Pontiac Bonneville. The Santa Fe then got wedged between two other vehicles — a CTA bus that had stopped to unload passengers, and a beer truck being unloaded by a worker, police said.

The worker, identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Charles Kimbrough, 45, of Riverdale, was pinned between the beer truck and the CTA bus, police said. He was pronounced dead at 3:53 p.m. at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, the medical examiner’s office said.

The beer truck also lurched forward during the crash and struck a second pedestrian, a 64-year-old man who was taken to Christ Medical Center in stable condition, police said.

A 66-year-old man driving the Aerostar, a 32-year-old man driving the bus, and a passenger on the bus also were injured, police said. They all were taken to Roseland Community Hospital in stable condition.