Intoxicated driver killed baby in womb

A  judge set bail this week at $750,000 for a 21-year-old motorist accused of being drunk and high on cocaine when he slammed into another car being driven a woman who was 9 months pregnant, causing the death of the unborn child.
Benjamin Pilar, of an unknown address, was booked into jail Friday after a judge set the $750,000 bail
Pilar is charged with reckless homicide of an unborn child, aggravated DUI resulting in bodily harm and three counts of misdemeanor DUI. He also was ticketed for driving without a license, failure to provide insurance, failure to maintain lanes and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
 An autopsy Friday determined Jose Luis Escobar Jr., of the 2500 block of Kenilworth Avenue in Berwyn, died of intrauterine fetal demise and placental abruption due to abdominal trauma from the motor vehicle crash.
 Pilar was behind the wheel of a Pontiac Grand Am when he plowed into a Cadillac being driven by a 21-year-old woman Tuesday about 3 p.m. in the 3500 block of South California Avenue in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side.
 When police got there, Pilar was slumped over in the driver’s seat with his hands and upper body in the passenger seat, and the woman was outside of the Cadillac, sitting on a curb holding her head with a towel.
The woman told police her head and back hurt, and she was 9 months pregnant.
 Ambulances took her and Pilar to Mount Sinai Hospital.
Initial tests there showed Pilar’s blood alcohol level was 0.254 percent – more than three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent -- and about an hour later 0.217 percent.
He also had traces of cocaine in his system.
 The woman was treated in the hospital, but doctors determined that the baby had died in the womb, police said. The baby was pronounced dead Thursday at 8:15 a.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital