Huntley family settled suit for $11M in son’s death. Why the driver who hit him only got a traffic ticket

The family of a 20-year-old Huntley man who was fatally struck by a car while performing utility work last year on a Huntley road received a record $11.5 million settlement in a wrongful death civil lawsuit. On the criminal end, the driver was only charged with petty-offense traffic violation because his actions were not reckless, officials said.

Joseph Zephries was fatally injured when he was struck while working on a utility crew along in January last year on Main Street in Huntley. Police said Zephries “was on the south shoulder of the road completing utility line location services” for U.S. Infrastructure Company, or USIC, when he was hit by an Enterprise rental Kia Forte traveling east. He died from his injuries at Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital.

The civil lawsuit filed against Enterprise by Zephries’ family asserted the crash happened because the driver, Brandon Evans, a 28-year-old Chicago man and Enterprise employee, briefly dozed off at the wheel. According to authorities, it was because of this involuntary action that he did not face criminal felony charges sometimes seen in cases where someone in fatally struck by a driver, such as reckless homicide.

McHenry County State‘s Attorney Chief of Staff Ashley Romito explained that reckless homicide requires a person to unintentionally kill another person through risky behaviors that are consciously disregarded, such as speeding, driving under the influence or running through stop signs.

“A person acts recklessly when they consciously disregard a substantial risk that their actions are likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another individual,” Romito said. “This disregard must constitute a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in the same situation.”

Reckless homicide applies to driving cases, while involuntary manslaughter generally applies to everything not traffic-related, according to Illinois law.

Through police dash-cam footage, witnesses and multiple blood tests, authorities found no evidence that Evans displayed reckless driving from a criminal perspective, the prosecutor said. There was also no evidence of either impairment or intoxication charge, nor was there the requisite reckless conduct, she said.

Evans fully cooperated with police, remained at the scene and was one of many to call 911 after the crash, Romito said.

“The investigation did not reveal that the driver losing consciousness was the result of impairment or any known risk,” she said. “By all the many eyewitnesses’ accounts, including first responders, civilians and police, he was driving appropriately before and after the accident.”

McHenry County court records show Evans was charged with a traffic violation of failing to reduce speed, which is considered a petty offense. He was ordered to complete eight hours of traffic school and pay $326 in fines, according to court records.

It’s a stark contrast to another case in McHenry County in which, just a few months later, another young man – 24-year-old Austin Stanek of Island Lake – was struck by a car and killed.

The driver who allegedly hit Stanek, Christine Eilers of McHenry, has pending charges against her of failure to report a fatal crash, leaving the scene of a fatal crash and aggravated DUI, all felonies. But in that case, authorities alleged at the woman’s initial court appearance that she didn’t stop or call police after the crash, had been drinking in bars earlier that night and afterward “concealed” her vehicle in her boyfriend’s garage.