SUV driver speeds through Wheeling funeral home parking lot, plows into neighboring house

A high-speed driver who authorities say showed signs of alcohol impairment crossed the opposite lanes of traffic on Milwaukee Avenue in Wheeling Sunday, jumped the curb in front of Kolssak Funeral Home, and crashed into the deck of co-owner David Kolssak's neighboring house.

Luckily, no one was home, and there were no wakes or funerals going on at the funeral home.

"That's the fortunate thing that nobody was there," Kolssak said. "Otherwise, he would have gone right through the parking lot where somebody parks and assuredly someone would've been outside. I shudder to think what could have happened."

The driver of a Jeep Grand Cherokee was traveling southbound on Milwaukee Avenue about 4:15 p.m. Sunday when the SUV crossed over to the northbound lanes, clipped the corner of the funeral home's landscaping bricks, then struck the front porch of Kolssak's house on the 200 block of South Milwaukee Avenue.

Firefighters removed the driver from the SUV, and he was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he remained Monday with serious injuries, police said. The passenger walked away unscathed.

Deputy Police Chief Joseph Licari said further investigation showed the driver showed signs of alcohol impairment. A DUI investigation was conducted at the scene and continued at the hospital. Charges are expected, but the investigation has not concluded, Licari said.

The force of the impact left the SUV mangled, the attached raised porch destroyed, and its roof covering collapsed. The porch was eight steps up from the sidewalk level.

Kolssak had damage to the corner of his house repaired and sealed up from water exposure right away Sunday night. The house is structurally sound, but he says more repair work is still to be done.