Sentencing Wednesday in fatal Route 47 crash

• Reprints

Alia N. Bernard, 27, awaits a possible prison sentence after pleading guilty to being under the influence of marijuana when she caused a 2009 crash on Route 47 in which two people were killed and several others injured.

Updated: March 24, 2012 11:25PM

Time does not heal all wounds.

Nearly three years after his mother, Denise Thomas, died in a chain-reaction, multi-vehicle crash near Elburn, 24-year-old Kirk Wold still feels empty without her around to talk with or offer her support.

“It’s still there that I don’t have that person,” Wold said. “It’s been a rough three years, and it’s not really over. I have the rest of my life without her.”

Jere Bozonelos lives with physical reminders of what happened near Smith Road and Route 47 on May 23, 2009 — partial paralysis below his waist.

The former Fermilab employee has spent much of the last three years in hospitals and care centers. His Aurora home needed to be fitted with ramps and other features to make it wheelchair-accessible. His medical bills alone are in the neighborhood of $3 million, he said.

“I have no recollection of what happened,” Bozonelos said recently. “The accident happened in May, I woke up in August.”

Wold, Bozonelos and many more will fill the gallery of Kane County Judge Allen Anderson’s courtroom on Wednesday when he sentences Alia Bernard on her convictions for two counts of aggravated driving under the influence in the crash that killed Thomas and her husband Wade.

At least five other people were injured when Bernard’s Toyota rear-ended another vehicle to cause a series of collisions which ultimately slammed a car into a procession of motorcyclists which included the Thomases and Bozonelos.

Bernard, 27, pleaded guilty to the charges in December. She faces a minimum of six years in prison, but could be given probation if Anderson finds exceptional circumstances warrant she not go to prison.

Bernard was indicted on aggravated DUI charges because a small amount of marijuana was found in her system and deemed a “proximate cause” of the crash by prosecutors, who previously said Bernard was not high when the crash occurred.

Wold, the youngest of Denise Thomas’ three sons, acknowledges he was “a little happy” when Bernard admitted to the charges, mainly because she had taken responsibility for what happened. Others with connections to the crash seized on her plea to send emotional reminders to the media, and even Anderson, about the totality of the damage Bernard had caused to many lives.

The letters to Anderson prompted two hearings where the judge ordered third parties not to correspond with him because it is improper.

One letter, contained in court records, calls on Anderson to imprison Bernard to “send a message to the community that distracted driving does kill and anyone who texts while driving, ingests illegal substances and kills or maims a motorcyclist will be held responsible.”

“Alia Bernard shows no remorse or hasn’t apologized to these families,” the letter states.

Bozonelos, 54, agrees. He feels it was “poor” of her to plead guilty after putting victims and their families through such a long process.

“She needs to see the lives she affected. I don’t think she realizes her life will go on,” he said.

The crash forced Wold, who had lived with his mother, to move in with his oldest brother. It was a “big wake up call” to lose his mother, Wold said, describing her as a caring listener who loved life.

Bernard’s insurance company agreed to pay $32,000 to Thomas’ estate — representing her three sons — to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Bernard in 2009.

Bozonelos, who did not sue, uses a wheelchair and has regained several measures of personal independence around the house. He is assisted by a caregiver who visits and his brother who has been by his side for the last three years. The last six months have been his best since the crash.

Bozonelos said he originally planned to spend that May Saturday working on a motor home for an upcoming road trip, but the weather convinced him to go on the motorcycle ride with about 25 others.

“It was going to be a nice ride,” Bozonelos recalled.

Bozonelos slowly learned details of the crash from newspaper stories and by attending court hearings. He believes he was struck first by the car waiting to turn and that the Thomases were behind him. After waking from the coma, Bozonelos heard they had died.

“My main concern was that I didn’t cause the accident,” Bozonelos said, noting he had never been in crash in 27 years of riding.

“I think we as a group, as motorcyclists, as people, deserve to see some kind of justice instead of saying it’s just an accident,” he added.