Jury: Driver at fault in quadruple fatality

An 18-year-old Streamwood man who died along with three other teens in a fiery crash in Burlington Township last fall was blamed for the quadruple fatality Wednesday at a Kane County Coroner's inquest.

A coroner's jury ruled as homicides the deaths of three 19-year-olds killed in the Nov. 1 head-on collision at Plato and Burlington Roads, and put the fourth man - the driver of the other car - at fault.

Police said the crash happened about 1 a.m. when a southbound car driven by Erick Silva of Streamwood crossed the center line on Burlington Road and hit an oncoming vehicle.

Killed were Silva and his two passengers, Christian Godoy and Andres Solis, both of Streamwood, and Marco Leon of Elgin, who was driving the other vehicle.

Coroner's officials said Godoy and Solis died of blunt trauma; Leon died of burns after his vehicle caught fire. They testified that both Godoy and Solis had marijuana, alcohol and cocaine in their systems, while Leon had only trace amounts of marijuana, indicating the drug use was "not recent."

Kane County sheriff's detective Kenneth Johnson said no one witnessed the crash but that another driver told police he was passed by Silva's car, which was going 80 or 90 mph on Burlington Road shortly beforehand.

"It's evident that the red car (Silva's) was at fault," Johnson said.

There was no inquest in Kane County on Wednesday into Silva's death, which took place in DuPage County after he was rushed to a hospital there.