$2 million for Emily Kandemir's family

I'm never sure if links will last, so here's the full story about a settlement reached for the family of Emily Kandemir. Emily was walking her bicycle across the street when David Moro killed her with his dump truck when he made a right turn on red. He was issued a failure to yield ticket ($100 fine I believe). "No right turn on red" signs were put up at the intersection (all corners, quite prominent) but at least once a month I see someone make the same right turn on red that killed Emily. People keep that corner supplied year-round with balloons, flowers, and teddy bears. (I pass the spot she was killed twice a day.)

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$2 million to be paid in crash that killed girl

By Joseph Sjostrom
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 18, 2005

A $2 million settlement was reached Thursday in a lawsuit against a company whose dump truck fatally injured a 13-year-old girl in La Grange in 2003.

Emily Kandemir, then an 8th-grader at Park Junior High School, was walking her bike across Willow Springs Road on her way to a tennis clinic when she was hit by a dump truck owned by Le Pretre Excavating Inc. of Orland Park. The truck was trying to make a right turn from Willow Springs onto 47th Street, according to police accounts at the time.

In a court deposition, the truck driver said he didn't see the girl before striking her, said lawyers involved in the case.

According to Kandemir family lawyers David Wise and Michael Mahoney, witnesses said the girl was standing at the intersection as the truck approached and that the driver should have seen her before she became hidden by the "blind spot" on the passenger side of the tall three-axle vehicle.

But Terry Fox, an attorney for the trucking company, said one witness to the incident saw the girl approach the intersection from the truck's passenger side at an angle from which the driver could not have seen her, and then crossed the street in front of the truck.

The $2 million settlement was reached without going to trial and was approved Thursday by Judge Thomas Hogan in Cook County court.

Emily was on her way to a daily tennis clinic at Lyons Township High School on July 16, 2003, and was walking her bicycle from the southeast corner of 47th Street and Willow Springs Road, police said. The truck was northbound on Willow Springs and was trying to make a right turn on a red light onto 47th Street, according to Wise.

The driver, David Moro of Hickory Hills, did not see Emily at that point because she stood lower than the hood of his truck, and struck her and her bike as he put the truck in motion to make a right turn, lawyers said. Moro received a traffic citation for failure to yield.

Emily was described by family and friends as an energetic A student who enjoyed her summertime tennis camp and who had been travelling throughout the United States and Europe, and visiting her grandparents. A family statement said she was a wonderful friend to many, and especially to Teoman, her 10-year-old brother.

She also was survived by her mother, Barbara, and her father, Emre.