by JAMES S. KIM
A Chicago man is being sued by three passengers who were in his car when he allegedly drove his BMW off a road, crashed it, and then fled the scene by hailing a cab, abandoning his injured passengers, reported DNAinfo Chicago.
Philip Cho, a 28-year-old nightclub promoter and co-founder of Soul Entertainment, had offered rides to Kelsey Ibach, Brittney Zingsheim and Bradley Schaum outside a bar in the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 21. Authorities said Cho’s passengers asked him to slow down as he sped down West Erie Street, but Cho ended up losing control and crashed the car through a barrier.
The three passengers are now suing Cho for negligence and two bars, The MID and Hubbard Inn, for allegedly over-serving him drinks. Ibach said she was in the taxi line outside of The MID when Cho, a friend of a friend, pulled up and offered her and the others a ride.
When Cho crashed his car near the Chicago River, it fell more than 25 feet, landing upside down. He then reportedly crawled out of the car and told the injured passengers, “If anyone asks, I was hijacked. The car was taken, OK?”
Ibach and the others pleaded with Cho to call an ambulance, but he allegedly refused and fled the scene. Fortunately, an unidentified good Samaritan called 911 and managed to capture the scene on a cellphone video camera.
Cho later turned himself in to the police a week after the crash and was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injuries and failing to reduce speed. He was held on $200,000 bail, which he has paid. Cho also has a DUI charge from 2008, when he also allegedly fled the scene. Those charges, however, were dropped for “unknown reasons.”
The 25-year-old Ibach suffered broken ribs and a spinal injury in the crash and is now paralyzed from the waist down. Schaum had his thumb severed, and Zingsheim suffered fractured vertebra and broken ribs.
