Man charged in West Chicago hit-and-run caught on video

A 26-year-old West Chicago man faces misdemeanor charges after admitting he was driving the minivan that struck a grandfather mowing his lawn, police said.

Eulalio Garcia, 26, was cited for failure to give aid or information regarding a personal injury crash, which is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Garcia turned himself in Wednesday morning at the West Chicago police station after seeing an online video of the crash, Sgt. Julio Calabrese said. "No doubt, the media is what helped," he said.

Guadalupe Ballinas, 68, was working outside at 5 p.m. Friday on the 1000 block of South Joliet Street when the minivan veered off the road, knocked him down and then sped off, authorities said. A video taken from a nearby residential surveillance camera shows Ballinas' shoes flying off as he is thrown several feet.

"(Garcia) gave no admission to phone use or any other distraction," Calabrese said. "He told us he just veered over and figured he drove over the curb."

Ballinas said he has no memory of the accident, but has watched the video.

"How could he not notice if he was driving? Was he blind that he didn't see me?" he said in his native Spanish.

His daughter Elisa Ballinas agreed.

"When you run over something, even a small squirrel or something on the floor, you seem to be aware that something happened, that you went over something," she said. "It's very hard to believe that he did not know that he hit someone."

Elisa Ballinas also questioned whether the driver should have faced more serious charges. "My dad's life could have been taken away, and it seems like they're taking it as something very minimal."

Lettecia Salinas, the next-door neighbor, captured the accident on a surveillance camera she recently installed to thwart parcel thefts from her porch.

After a few minutes, she reported, Ballinas got up and went inside before eventually going back out to finish his lawn work.

"I'm glad (the driver) turned himself in," Salinas said.

Elisa Ballinas said she and her mother took her father to the emergency room after the accident, and he's now being treated by his doctor.

Guadalupe Ballinas said he's not doing well. "I feel very bad," he said, adding no more.

"He's in a lot of pain and he has lots of headaches. We are hoping nothing worse is going on," Elisa Ballinas said. "He's trying very hard to be a very strong person, as he always has been."

She added, "I think he is mad. And he's hurt. He has such a such a good heart that he can't believe that someone would just leave him there, and not go out and help him."

Garcia is due in court at 8:30 a.m. June 21 to face the misdemeanor charge.