Charges have been announced against a father accused of driving intoxicated and causing a head-on crash that killed his 5-year-old son and left his 2-year-old child critically injured in Beach Park.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded around 5 p.m. on November 26 to Green Bay Road just north of Hart Street in Beach Park for a report of a serious crash.
Deputies arrived and found a Chevrolet Malibu and a GMC Sierra involved in a head-on collision.
An investigation showed that the Chevrolet Malibu, driven by Steven McKnight Jr., 25, of Zion, was traveling southbound on Green Bay Road, according to Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli.
Witness statements indicated McKnight was illegally passing other southbound vehicles by driving in the northbound lanes, Covelli said.
While traveling in the wrong lane, the Chevrolet collided head-on with the northbound GMC Sierra, driven by a 57-year-old man of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
The driver of the GMC suffered serious injuries and was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he remained for days being treated.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Francis DeRosa said the damage was so extensive that none of the doors would open and McKnight had to be extricated by the fire department.
He suffered severe lower extremity injuries, including a fractured right ankle, scalp laceration and a fractured right femur.
McKnight’s two-year-old son, who was seated on his lap in the driver’s seat, suffered critical injuries and was transported to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago for treatment.
Before being transported to a hospital, McKnight told deputies that no one else was in the vehicle, Covelli said.
Family members showed up at the scene and told first responders that McKnight had two children and he had picked them up from daycare, DeRosa said.
Deputies and the fire department later discovered a critically injured five-year-old boy beneath debris behind the driver’s seat.
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek identified the child as Sy’mere McKnight, 5, of Zion.
CPR and other lifesaving measures were performed on Sy’mere McKnight and he was rushed to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan where he was pronounced dead in the emergency room.
The sheriff’s office announced in an update on Tuesday that traffic crash investigators have concluded their investigation into the incident.
Investigators found that McKnight was driving recklessly and driving under the influence of cannabis at the time of the crash, Covelli said.
Covelli said McKnight did not have his two-year-old son or five-year-old son in any sort of restraining device while driving.
“Both children sustained horrific injuries, and unfortunately, the injuries were fatal for Sy’mere,” Covelli said.
DeRosa said deputies could smell a strong odor of cannabis coming from inside the Chevrolet. A grocery bag containing 73 grams of cannabis was located on McKnight’s floorboard.
Crash investigators reviewed their investigation with the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office.
McKnight was charged by indictment with two counts of aggravated driving under the influence causing death, reckless homicide, endangering the life of a child causing death and four counts of aggravated driving under the influence.
McKnight was arrested at his home on Thursday by sheriff’s deputies and members of the sheriff’s SWAT team.
“This crash was not an accident, it was the result of reckless, impaired driving that took the life of an innocent five-year-old child, severely injured another child, and seriously injured an uninvolved motorist who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Lake County Sheriff John D. Idleburg said.
“There is absolutely no excuse for putting children, or anyone, at risk. Our hearts are with Sy’mere’s family as they continue to grieve an unimaginable loss,” Idleburg said.
DeRosa said McKnight told deputies that he was driving northbound when another vehicle swerved into his lane and struck his car. He then later told deputies that he was not driving and there were no children with him in the car.
Numerous independent witnesses reported McKnight’s vehicle was the one that drove head-on and had been driving recklessly, DeRosa said.
Deputies told McKnight that his children were indeed in the car with him and McKnight said he did not remember and that his mother told him his kids were “good.”
Lab results showed McKnight had 6.7 nanograms per milliliter of Delta-9-THC in his blood over an hour after the crash, DeRosa said.
The state’s attorney’s office filed a petition to detain McKnight while he awaits trial and Lake County Judge Ari Fisz granted the petition during a detention hearing on Friday afternoon.
“This defendant chose to consume cannabis, then place his two young children unrestrained into his vehicle, and finally drive in a manner that killed one of his children, caused great bodily harm to another of his children, and caused great bodily harm to a third unrelated party simply going about his day,” DeRosa said.
“The further callous nature of this defendant was that the defendant denied that he had any children in the vehicle with him despite his two-year-old son being on his lap and his five-year-old son who was thrown with such force while being unsecured, that he died of his injuries and was literally buried under debris in the vehicle,” DeRosa added.
The judge said in his ruling that McKnight poses a danger to the community and that he has a long history of disobeying court orders.
McKnight, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, remains held in the Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court again on August 7 for an arraignment hearing.