A Chicago man has filed a lawsuit against the city in connection with a May crash that left him seriously injured.
Stephen Dewart, 27, was one of eight people struck by a white Streets and Sanitation truck at Rush and Cedar streets, in the Gold Coast, on May 21. He was with his wife and several other people in a photo shoot depicting a wedding when the pickup careened into the crowd.
"I was hearing it and seeing it accelerate. It was a split second thing," Dewart said Friday.
He said the crash has forced him to put his life on hold. Sitting in a back brace because of spinal fractures and with a titanium rod in his broken leg, Dewart is unable to return to his job. His plans to go to law school, he said, have also been put on hold.
His wife, he said, has become a caretaker.
"It's definitely changed our lives, and it will change our lives for quite a while," he said.
The driver, 61-year-old Dwight Washington, was charged with drunken driving and has since been fired.
The father of a 1-year-old girl who was injured in the crash filed a lawsuit against Washington and the city last month.
A pair of aldermen have since proposed mandating that all city employees -- including aldermen -- undergo random drug testing.
