Round Lake Park cop sidelines dangerous tanker

Round Lake Park’s police chief credited an officer for noticing problems with a tanker passing through the village that he said could have caused a serious crash involving other motorists.

Truck driver Joel R. Pilbeam, 55, of the 35000 block of Egyptian Trail in Peotone, was ticketed for no rear suspension system, unsafe tires with steel ply showing and no warning device in the cab. Pilbeam was pulled over at 3 p.m. Wednesday on eastbound Route 120 at Porter Drive, police said.

Police Chief George Filenko said officer Waymon Vela deserves credit for quickly recognizing serious safety defects with the rig and getting it off the road until repairs were made. Vela has specialized certification for truck inspections and in determining if they are overweight.

Filenko and Vela said the problems with Pilbeam’s truck could have endangered other motorists similar to a 1994 tragedy that led to the deaths of six children who were passengers in a van driven by the Rev. Scott Willis on I-94 in Wisconsin. In that crash, part of a truck’s mudflap-taillight assembly dragged on the pavement and created a spark that ignited the Willis van’s gas tank.

Vela said an obstructed registration tag led him to pull over the tanker driven by Pilbeam, who was headed to Peotone from McHenry on Wednesday afternoon. Vela said the tanker typically is filled with chemicals for plastics, but it was empty when he stopped the truck.

In examining the truck, Vela said, he discovered four leaf springs came loose and fell on a road somewhere before the driver reached Round Lake Park. He said the springs hitting the pavement would have been a hazard for other motorists.

Vela said the lack of springs caused the trailer to bounce and began shredding the tires. He said there was a particular concern about the truck’s worn-down rear retread tires, which can “shoot like missiles” and create a danger for other drivers when they blow out.

“Those retreads could shoot up to 20 feet to 30 feet in the air, depending on how fast the rig is going,” Vela said.

Pilbeam’s cab, registered to Act 2 LLC in Peotone, also was not properly equipped with a warning device that would have alerted him to the falling springs and the tire shredding, Vela said. Pilbeam waited at Round Lake Park police headquarters until the A-Tire County Service in neighboring Round Lake made repairs on his truck, authorities said.