CHICAGO — The truck driver who struck and killed a 4-year-old boy on a city street earlier this year was driving with a THC level more than three times the legal limit, prosecutors said this week. James Bernstein, 53, also had cocaine metabolite in his system at the time of the crash, according to the allegations.
Bernstein, driving a 2021 dual-wheeled Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck, made a right-hand turn from 82nd Street onto Harper Avenue around 4:30 p.m. on June 2, officials said. He allegedly struck four-year-old Xyaire Askew, who had run into Harper Avenue while playing with friends.
After striking the boy, Bernstein “drove over the victim’s chest and head” when he “went to pull over” at the scene, prosecutors said in a detention petition. Xyaire was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital about 30 minutes later.
Bernstein consented to chemical testing, a Chicago police report said, and the Illinois State Police laboratory determined that his blood contained cocaine metabolite and a THC level of 18.4 nanograms per milliliter, officials said in court filings.
It is illegal to operate a motor vehicle in Illinois with a THC level of five nanograms or more per milliliter of blood, according to a DUI fact sheet published by the secretary of state (PDF).
Judge Caroline Glennon-Goodman denied the state’s detention request and sent Bernstein home to await trial. He is charged with one count of DUI causing a fatal accident.
“He met no strangers, friendly with everybody,” Xyaire’s grandmother told the Sun-Times in June. “Once he meets you, he will remember you.”
Bernstein has no previous criminal cases in Cook County court records.
