Kyle Eichorn is shown in a photo from his Facebook page, where he has complained mightily about the pain he’s in…but according to Saline County officials, he was feeling no pain when he crashed his vehicle head-on into a coal truck in the very early morning of Saturday, November 29, as they allege he had a combination of drugs, alcohol and pot in his system at the time of the crash, this following a night of partying…probably on the road, and endangering others all night long.
SALINE CO.—The driver in a horrific Harco Road crash in late November has been charged in Saline County with multiple DUI and Driving with Substance in Blood or Urine counts in the wreck.
Despite incessant griping to the contrary by family and friends, Kyle Wayne Eichorn, 18, of Golconda, was tested and the results of those tests turned over to the state’s attorney’s office in Saline for prosecution…and all tests conducted produced drugs, substances or compounds that are illicit and, in the case of an underage drinker, illegal for Eichorn to have been consuming in the hours preceding the crash.
Illinois State Police and Saline County Sheriff’s Office reports indicate that the wreck occurred around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 29, 2014, when Eichorn was southbound on Harco just south of Mt. Moriah Road in a black 2011 Chevy Cruze. That vehicle left the west side of the roadway before striking a guard rail, then traveling into the northbound lane of traffic, where it struck an coal truck-trailer combination head-on.
The coal truck driver was uninjured; Eichorn and a passenger in his vehicle, Nick Vincellette, also 18, were severely injured and were flown to Deaconess in Evansville for treatment.
Filed January 9
Saline authorities waited until Eichorn was released from the hospital (so they wouldn’t have to pay for any of his treatment, which is what happens if a person is charged while undergoing treatment in any facility) and, on January 9, filed a multi-count set of charges against Eichorn.
The first is Aggravated Driving with a Drug, Substance or Compound in Blood or Urine, alleging that he was involved in a motor vehicle accident, which injured another person (Vincelette), with a drug, substance or compound in his blood or urine resulting from the unlawful use of the consumption of cannabis, which rendered him incapable of driving safely.
The second count involves all the same factors, with the drug, substance or compound in blood or urine being methamphetamine.
The third count involves all the same factors, with the drug, substance or compound in blood or urine being benzodiazepine (the active ingredient commonly found in painkillers and anti-anxiety medication, including Xanax).
The fourth count is Aggravated driving with an Alcohol Concentration of .08 or more, said concentration found in “blood or breath” as per testing following the wreck.
The fifth count is Aggravated Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol.
YOLO
So to say Eichorn is in a lot of trouble is an understatement.
However, to hear him tell it, he didn’t do anything wrong…he was just applying the “yolo” (You Only Live Once) mentality to his cruising around the countryside, which is what teens in this permissive age seem to live by. Unfortunately, many of them die by it as well; Austin German, 21, another area hellraiser from Hardin County, managed to kill himself in just such a car wreck only a month before Eichorn’s, this after just a few months prior being issued a DUI in that county.
Further, Eichorn’s supporters were, in the hours and days after his wreck, griping that Disclosure was opining that it appeared Eichorn had been partying the night before, this judging by his multiple Facebook posts about, of course, drinking and road tripping. Supporters whined that “those are just song lyrics!!” and didn’t mean Eichorn was actually drinking and driving.
Those supporters are now strangely silent in the face of the very serious charges.
Illinois has a “zero tolerance” underage drinking law, which gives the state the ability to remove a teen’s driver’s license altogether for a stated period of time (up to several years) if the prosecutor and judge agree that the situation is egregious enough to call for it.
Where’s the money?
The likelihood of the punishment, however, will probably be more like weekends in jail and enormous fines and fees, is more viable.
Eichorn’s family may have to rely on his grandmother, Barbara Wingo, to pay out those massive fines, perhaps out of her multiple Subway restaurant investments in Paducah, Kentucky, since there’s been something of a stifling of her southern Illinois not-for-profit business venture, Anna Bixby Women’s Center.
The center has been under an Illinois Attorney General investigation since October of 2014, that investigation centering on possible misappropriation of funds throughout the operation’s 36 years.
The center is operating, and checks are being cut, but the Wingo/Eichorn clan are not exactly functioning in the manner in which they’re used to doing for the majority of their lives.
Wingo’s daughter Terrie Eichorn has been giving vent to drunken rants on her Facebook page since Disclosure began writing about the AG investigation in early December (interestingly, about the same time the details of her son’s wreck emerged.)
Terrie’s husband Wayne Eichorn has found himself having to rely on another mode of transportation since the AG’s office demanded that he park the center’s van at the office in Harrisburg and not utilize it again. This misuse of the vehicle—paid for by public funds—is somewhat of an outrage considering that Wayne Eichorn is employed by the state of Illinois on the highway department.
Outrage
That fact causes further outrage for some, considering the fact that the Eichorns have in recent years been granted Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds to improve at least one home they own; this was facilitated because Wayne Eichorn sat on the HUD board.
This action managed to get him removed from the board…but there was no information Disclosure could find that indicated that he was required to pay the funds back, like he was asked to pay back misuse of the county’s credit card in the last years of his term on the county board, when he went on a spending spree at Hooters and other locations, and purchased satellite TV packages for his family at the county’s expense.
The entitlement mentality that the Wingo-Eichorn clan has been possessed of for decades now may be coming to an end with Kyle Eichorn’s very serious charges, as now any subsequent bad behavior on his part is going to get more and more expensive, as well as labor-intensive for those who are tasked with taking care of him. And judging by his bad attitude as displayed on social networking pages, it doesn’t appear the wreck has changed him, nor is his attitude going to improve anytime soon.