Charges filed after car strikes stroller, injures 5-year-old, 1-year-old in Munster
Charges were filed this week after a convertible struck a stroller in Munster in August and injured the two children in it, court records show.
Nicholas Charles-Romanov Heppner-Lundin, 20, of Munster, was charged Tuesday in Lake Superior Court with six felony counts of criminal recklessness and three misdemeanor counts of reckless driving.
On Aug. 18, emergency crews were dispatched to the intersection of White Oak Avenue and Camellia Drive after a white Saab convertible going around a curve drove onto a sidewalk and hit a stroller carrying a 5-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl, a probable cause states.
The father, who was uninjured, said he was pushing the stroller when he heard a vehicle accelerating toward them, according to the affidavit.
“(The father) said that he did not know what to do, but knew that the Saab would not make the turn in the roadway and was unsure of where to move for their safety,” the affidavit states.
The father tried to push the stroller out of the path of the vehicle, and when the Saab struck the stroller he was still holding on to its handle, according to the affidavit. The force of the stroller being ripped from his grasp caused him to fall, court records state.
Lt. Ed Strbjak, Munster police spokesman, was off
affidavit duty and with his wife when he witnessed the Saab traveling at a high rate of speed east on Camellia Drive and attempting to go north of White Oak Avenue, the affidavit states. He told his wife that the Saab would not make the turn due to a high rate of speed, which he estimated was 55 to 60 mph., according to the affidavit.
(Strbjak) heard the tires of the Saab screeching as it left the roadway and then struck the stroller, the affidavit states.
The wife said she saw the stroller projected several yards down the sidewalk and the little boy in the stroller … was projected into the air, the affidavit states.
Strbjak called emergency services and told the driver to turn off the engine and for the driver and his three passengers to get out of the car, according to the affidavit.
The boy complained of pain all over his body, while the girl was in and out of consciousness with a severe head wound, the affidavit states.
The children were taken to Community Hospital in Munster, court records state. The boy had a contusion to his head, and had a large amount of bruising to the left side of his body, according to the affidavit.
The girl had contusions to her head and neck, the affidavit states. She was transferred to Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago after a CT scan showed she had blood pooled outside the brain, according to the affidavit. She was in the hospital until Aug. 25 and suffered effects similar to that of a concussion after returning home, court records state.
Heppner-Lundin said that he and his friends had gone to Five Guys restaurant to eat and went joyriding after, the affidavit states. As Heppner-Lundin approached a curve on Camellia Drive, he knew that he was going too fast and he depressed the clutch and the brake, according to the affidavit. He said he tried to go toward a tree because he saw the people with the stroller, court records state.
Heppner-Lundin
esti- mated his speed as between 65 to 70 miles per hours,the affidavit states.
An officer gave Heppner-Lundin a portable breath test which resulted in 0.00 blood alcohol content, according to the affidavit.
Camellia Drive and White Oak Avenue are residential streets that meet a curve in the roadway, the affidavit states, and the speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
Surveillance video from a doorbell camera at a residence on Camellia Drive captured the crash, according to the affidavit.
An attorney and hearing date were not listed for He p p n e r- Lu n d i n on Thursday in court records.