Dec. 04--The driver of a Mercedes SUV that police clocked going almost 120 mph before it crashed, killing him and his passenger on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chinatown, was identified Thursday.
The driver, Timothy K. Letten, 22, of Deerfield, crashed the Mercedes GL450 about 11:20 p.m. on the feeder ramp near Cermak Road, killing him and Christopher J. Pastiu, Illinois State Police said in a statement issued Thursday.
A trooper on patrol in an unmarked car spotted the SUV heading north at high speed in the middle lane of the Chinatown feeder ramp, police said in the statement. The trooper caught up with the SUV briefly, clocking it at 118 mph, and tried to stop the SUV, but it accelerated and the trooper gave up the pursuit, police said.
The trooper radioed in to dispatchers, notifying them of what was going on with the SUV, and soon after came upon stalled traffic at 23rd Street, police said. The SUV was "engulfed" in flames next to a bridge abutment.
Both Letten, whose address in Deerfield was not released, and Pastiu, of the 700 block of Barberry Road in Highland Park, neither of whom were wearing seat belts, were pronounced deceased at the scene, according to police.
Autopsy information on the two men was not immediately available.
