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BREAKING
Skander Charged After Deadly KC Crash
Eldar Skander, 39, of Chicago, faces three counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter after a semi struck stopped traffic on U.S. 71. Olga Sorbalo, 35, and her two young sons were killed.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
First-degree involuntary manslaughter is about recklessness, not a plan to kill. The state is going to lean on speed, the lack of hard braking, and a tablet open to YouTube. A mother and her two sons are dead. That loss is why the case is charged. It does not, by itself, prove the counts.
Eldar Skander, 39, of Chicago, is charged with three counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Jackson County prosecutors filed the case Tuesday, the day after a semi he was driving hit stopped traffic on northbound U.S. 71 in Kansas City, near East 19th Street. Olga Sorbalo, 35, and her two young sons were killed. Skander is in the Jackson County jail on a $150,000 cash-only bond.
Court records say the semi, a white Volvo, was moving at a high rate of speed and that investigators found no sign of emergency braking. An officer found a tablet on the floorboard with YouTube open. The tablet had Velcro that matched a mount on the dash, and it held the truck's driving log. Police also took a dash camera from the cab. Skander had minor injuries. He declined to talk to detectives.
The semi hit a minivan and set off a chain reaction that also involved two SUVs and a FedEx truck. Other people in the minivan were hurt, and so were the drivers of the SUVs. The FedEx driver was not.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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