Artist Eastling isn't quite sure why she accepted the offer for emergency medical training from her company.
But he had a good idea what put him in Guaranteed Rate Field Tuesday night when a speeding car plowed into a crowd of people.
“It was God's calling,” Eastling said Wednesday. “When you see someone in need, you help them. You don't turn your back on them.
Eastling said he quickly put a tourniquet on a man's bleeding leg and checked on others before paramedics arrived within minutes. “The officers tried to detain me at first but they let me help when I told them about my EMS training,” he said.
Eastling, 57, was there to see the White Sox play the Texas Rangers. A driver heading east on 35th Street suddenly drove down the road and hit at least four people near Shields around 6:30 p.m., according to police.
One of the victims flew through the hood and caught in the sunroof as the car sped down the Dan Ryan Expressway, where it stopped on 46th Street. The four people in the car were detained and taken to hospital.
“I was about 7 feet away when I saw the first person get hit and then sent through the sunroof,” said Eastling. “He went at least 60 or better. If you hit someone and they get stuck in your sunroof, you know you have to stop. (The driver) kept going.”
The man, Charles Janczy, was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious condition. He later tweeted, “I'm the one who went through the sunroof. I'm fine – a few broken bones and a lot of swelling, but I will recover.”
A woman and two men were also hit by a speeding car.
“The woman hit a bus stop post and bled profusely,” Eastling said. “One person got hit, bam, then he rolled over in his car, his windshield cracked. Another person was trying to get out of the way when the driver swerved on him and knocked him over to the side of the road, where he hit the back of his head.”
Eastling tore a piece of cloth from the victim's shirt to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
The woman, 51, was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, and the men, 24 and 25, were taken to Stroger Hospital in reasonable and critical condition, police said.
“Everyone is handling it to the best of their ability,” said Eastling, who is from the West Side and works for Dakkota Integrated Services. “I rated the emergency responders a 10 because they did exactly what they needed to do.”
The driver of the car, Condelarious Garcia, 20, faces four felony charges apiece for failing to report an accidental injury and reckless driving causing bodily harm, police said.
He also faces one count of misconduct driving with a suspended license, police said, and citations for failing to slow down, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and having an expired registration. Garcia is scheduled to appear in Central Bond Court on Thursday.
Court records show Garcia was cited in 2019 for driving on a suspended license. A police report showed he did not own the car he was driving on Tuesday night.