ST. LOUIS — The family of two teenage sisters from Collinsville who died in a crash sued the state of Illinois Thursday for $24 million.
A state trooper lost control of his police cruiser last fall and crashed into the sisters' car, resulting in their fiery deaths.
The family of Jessica Uhl, 18, and Kelli Uhl, 13, filed the wrongful death lawsuit in the Illinois Court of Claims, which hears claims against the state. The court is in Springfield. The state of Illinois, the Illinois State Police, and Matt Mitchell, the state trooper, are named as defendants.
A coroner's jury ruled the deaths "reckless homicide" earlier this year after an accident reconstructionist testified that Mitchell was traveling 126 mph when he lost control of his cruiser and crossed the median. Mitchell has since been charged with reckless homicide, but his case hasn't been set for trial.
The sisters were headed home from a holiday photo shoot when Mitchell lost control of his cruiser and crossed over the Interstate 64 median in O'Fallon, Ill. The sisters' car was struck by the cruiser and became engulfed in fire. Both sisters died at the scene.
"My clients didn't select the numbers," said Tom Keefe, the attorney representing the girls' family. "I selected them based on what I think is necessary."
Keefe said the lawsuit wasn't about money, but about justice.
"My clients wouldn't take $224 billion for the lives of those girls," he said.
Scott Compton, an Illinois State Police spokesman, said he hadn't seen the lawsuit and had no comment on the litigation.
Jessica Uhl was a graduate of Collinsville High School and a student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Kelli Uhl was an eighth-grader at Collinsville Middle School.
The Uhl family has created a website, www.jessicaandkelliuhl.com, to remember the girls. A fundraiser is planned for this summer, raising money to establish a scholarship in the girls' name.
On Nov. 23, Mitchell was headed to another accident scene when the crash occurred, but that accident scene was already under control, according to an accident investigator. Mitchell had his lights and siren on at the time of the crash, most witnesses have said.
Mitchell, 30, of Huey, a small town in Clinton County, was injured and required several surgeries. He had been involved in two previous crashes in his six-year state police career. One of them resulted in a $1.7 million judgment against the state.
State police officials say Mitchell turned off his in-car videotaping system before the crash.
A new policy, in effect since January, requires that video cameras in patrol cars be activated at all times that emergency lights are in use.
Mitchell has been relieved of duty.
Copyright 2008 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
