A medical emergency caused a driver to become incapacitated, prompted her passenger to grab the steering wheel and swerve, hitting and killing a mother and adult daughter walking on a Winnetka street and injuring a four-month-old baby, according to results of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office reports.

The crash killed Sediqeh “Asra” Samadi, 37, of Kenilworth, a chemical engineer who worked at Abbott Labs, and her mother, Saeideh Sigari, a 58-year-old teacher who was visiting from Iran. It also sent Samadi’s four-month-old son, Yusuf, to the hospital in critical condition.

The Sheriff’s office issued a statement saying it had interviewed the driver and passenger of the vehicle and witnesses, and reviewed records and medical and toxicology reports.

“At the conclusion of the investigation, detectives determined there was no evidence to warrant criminal charges and that the accident was most likely the result of a medical event suffered by the driver,” the statement said.

The incident began when Samadi and her mother took the baby, in his stroller, for a walk in Samadi’s neighborhood on Friday, May 2, in the 5 p.m. hour. Sunset did not arrive until 7:52 that day, and conditions were sunny.

Mudassir Rashid, Samadi’s husband, who was not with them on the stroll, later said of Sigari, his mother-in-law, that “It was her greatest wish to see and hold (her grandson baby Yusuf)” on her visit.

Samadi and Sigari and the baby were walking southbound on Ridge Road near the Indian Hill Club, a country club at 1 Indian Hill Road in Winnetka, according to sheriff’s office reports.

Meanwhile, a 26-year-old woman driving a black Jeep Cherokee with Wisconsin plates was on her way to a family party at the Indian Hill Club with a female passenger in the front seat, according to reports.

The female passenger later told detectives that she and the driver had been talking when the driver made a choking noise and started foaming at the mouth and the vehicle started swerving, the reports said. The passenger, believing the driver might be having some type of seizure, grabbed the steering wheel to try to regain control, but instead the vehicle swerved off the roadway onto the sidewalk very close to the driveway to the country club, hitting the two women and baby walking there, before crashing into a tree. The airbags deployed.

The crash reconstruction report said both women pedestrians were pinned under the vehicle and the baby was also under the vehicle.

The passenger was able to get out of the Jeep, and witnesses said she was hysterical and panicked, but bystanders lifted the driver, unconscious at that point, out of the vehicle, and laid her on the pavement, reports said. The driver later told investigators she had blacked out and did not remember anything until she woke up while lying on the pavement.

An Illinois State Police toxicology report that was completed on June 24 found that the driver did not have alcohol or drugs in her system, but did find bupropion (Wellbutrin, an anti-anxiety prescription medication), per the reports.

On May 8, six days after the crash, an Evanston Hospital health information specialist provided a report that showed the driver underwent medical and neurological testing, and the results did not rule out a seizure.

A male witness who was walking his dogs heard the crash and later told investigators that he walked toward it and saw the passenger exit in a panicked state, the driver appearing almost catatonic and one woman pinned underneath. He said he asked a passing female motorist in a white GMC to call 911 and tried to get other observers to help the victims. An unknown person pulled the baby out from under the vehicle, per reports, and Sheriff’s Office bodycam footage of the incident showed one police officer who said the infant was alert and crying.

When first responders arrived, the male witness took his dogs home and his wife went to alert Samadi’s husband at their home, the reports said.

A female witness told investigators that she had gone to pick up a food order at the club, heard her daughter scream, turned around to see the crashed vehicle and ran over to help, per the reports. The woman said she and an unknown man who happened to be on scene pulled the baby from under the vehicle and that she covered the baby with her coat. She also said she saw the two women pinned, or partially pinned, under the vehicle. Then fire department personnel arrived to jack up the vehicle to extract the victims, she said.

First responders took Samadi, as well as the driver and passenger, to Evanston Hospital, where Dr. James Chadd pronounced Samadi deceased at 6:30 p.m., per the report.  A medical examiner arrived on scene and pronouced Sigary deceased just after 8 p.m.

Samadi and Sigary’s family members did not immediately respond to a request for reaction to the investigation, nor information on the condition of the baby.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/05/winnetka-fatal-crash-medical-emergency/