A Highland Park woman injured in a four-vehicle accident in Deerfield on Feb. 19 filed a lawsuit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court against Chicago Bulls player Ron Artest, and his brother, Daniel, charging Ron with negligence for letting his brother drive a car without a valid driver’s license.
Daniel, 18, was exiting the Deerfield High School parking lot on Feb. 19 at 3:30 in the afternoon, when the car he was driving collided with a second vehicle driven by a 44-year-old Lake Forest man, then continued on to a head-on collision with a van driven by Susan Romanchek, 40, of Highland Park. A fourth car, driven by a 22-year-old Vernon Hills man, then collided with the van, according to the accident report.
Romanchek and Daniel Artest were injured in the accident. Romanchek was treated at Highland Park Hospital and released the next day, according to her attorney, Timothy Cavanagh, of Smith & Smith. Artest was treated and released the same day, according to a spokeswoman from Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.
Two of Romanchek’s children, a three-year-old and a five-year-old, were riding in the back of the van and were not hurt in the accident, Romanchek said.
A 15-year-old passenger in Artest’s car was also not hurt, according to the accident report.
The suit, filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court, charged that Ron Artest, who was not involved in the accident, “owned and or was the named lessee” of the Mitsubishi Montero driven by his brother and knew his brother did not have a valid Illinois driver’s license.