Truck driver pleads guilty in fatal 2008 accident

A McHenry County truck driver involved in a 2008 crash that killed a mother and injured her son and husband was sentenced to 45 months in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to allegations he was under the influence of drugs when the collision occurred.

Jeffrey Repec, 30, of the 2500 block of Elk Drive, Spring Grove, will spend an additional 18 months on probation once his prison time is up, under a plea agreement with the Kane County State's Attorney.

The crash happened Oct. 31 as Repec was driving a semi-truck loaded with grain - and weighing 80,000 pounds - southbound on Route 47, near the Interstate 90 bridge in Huntley.

As Repec approached the bridge, authorities said, his truck slammed into the back of a Ford F150 pickup truck that was waiting to turn. The crash crushed the pickup truck between Repec's semi-truck and an Illinois Department of Transportation dump truck.

Tabitha Carroll, 32, of East Dubuque, a passenger in the pickup truck, was killed. Carroll's husband, Randolph, and 3-year-old son, Gabriel, were injured.

An investigation found Repec had not applied his brakes, and that he had smoked marijuana within 12 hours of the crash, authorities said. He had a concentration of marijuana in his system that was great enough to cause impairment, according to the Kane County state's attorney's office.

Repec will serve 45 months in prison for the Class 2 felony charge stemming from Carroll's death, and 18 months probation for the Class 4 felonies for the injuries.

Last fall, Carroll's estate filed a $50,000 wrongful-death lawsuit against Repec and his employer, Geils Farms, in Harvard.