Driver charged in fatal Arlington Heights accident

The 28-year-old driver of a speeding car that left the road in Arlington Heights May 20, crashing into a tree and killing a passenger, never has had a drivers license, police said Friday.

Gerardo Torres-Salas, who lives in an apartment on the 1500 block of South Wolf Road in Prospect Heights, has been charged with reckless driving, no valid drivers license, improper lane usage, failure to reduce speed to avoid a traffic crash, improper passing, and speeding over the posted 35 mph limit, police said. He was released with a court date of June 12 in Rolling Meadows.

Jose Antonio Guzman-Ojeda, 26, of Wheeling, died at the scene of the one-car accident, which occurred at approximately 11:23 p.m. just east of the intersection of Palatine Road and Rand Road.

Torres-Salas and the other two passengers in the vehicle were hospitalized. Torres-Salas and a 26-year-old Wheeling resident were released from Northwest Community Hospital on May 22. Information on the condition of a fourth person, a Prospect Heights man who was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and whose age was unknown, wasn't available.

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