It started as a normal Friday summer night for a group of friends who love cars.
After hanging out at gathering spots for gearheads — including a stretch of road near a cement factory popular with drivers who like to drift — the friends returned to a stretch of lower Lower Wacker Drive that on weekend nights has become a hotspot for those looking to test the limits of their ride.
Recent high school graduate Ivan Sanchez, 18, was there driving his blue 2005 Jeep Laredo. His best friend since elementary school, Jose Luvianos Jr., 20, was in his 1999 BMW 328i — a car Luvianos called “my baby” on his Facebook page.
What happened next has long been feared by the neighbors who complained about the late-night noise from screeching tires — a street race that ended early Saturday in the death of Luvianos.
Hours before, in a Tribune story on Friday about the car scene in the depths of Lower Wacker Drive, Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, had talked of his fear that teenagers imitating Hollywood films like the “Fast and Furious” franchise might crash and die on Lower Wacker.
“This is public infrastructure and driving like a movie star can end up with someone being killed,” he warned.
At a court hearing Monday, Sanchez wore a gray hoodie and blue jeans as Cook County prosecutors said his blood-alcohol content was almost double the legal limit and that he admitted smoking marijuana daily and using cocaine in the days before the crash.
Sanchez, who is charged with aggravated DUI and reckless homicide, “is lucky to be alive,” said Judge Peggy Chiampas. “It’s tragic — tragic.”
“It’s tragic for two individuals and two families,” replied Sanchez’s attorney, Vincent Luisi Jr.
The crash took place about half a mile from a stretch on lower Lower Wacker Drive near the city pound, between Field Boulevard and Stetson Avenue, where young car enthusiasts gather each weekend to check out each other’s cars, perform stunts and sometimes race.
“Who’s at wacker & ozinga tonight??” Sanchez had posted early Friday afternoon on his Facebook page, likely referring to both the Lower Wacker spot where drivers congregate and a cement company off Cermak Road and Lumber Street where drivers often go after police chase them from Wacker.
Chicago police had a traffic enforcement operation out on the strip until 3 a.m., a spokesman said, around the time prosecutors said that the group of friends returned to Lower Wacker and saw nothing going on.
The group decided to go home. Sanchez, who along with Luvianos had been drinking beers that night, led a column of cars with Luvianos behind him and two other friends in a Range Rover.
Sanchez and Luvianos then began racing west side-by-side in two lanes on Lower Wacker, said Assistant State’s Attorney Kimberly Prezkota. Witnesses estimated they were speeding over 50 mph in a 30 mph zone, according to a police report.
A vehicle in Luvianos’ lane blocked his path, so he pulled around it, got behind Sanchez’s Jeep and then attempted to cut between the two vehicles back into the right-hand lane, she said. Luvianos’ BMW fishtailed and clipped the front of Sanchez’s Jeep, causing it to crash into a concrete support beam and spin out, Prezkota said.
Luvianos’ car then spun out, crossed Garvey Court in the 0-100 block of Lower Wacker and struck two concrete pillars, she said. Both men were knocked unconscious, but Sanchez suffered only bruises and a cut on his nose. His best friend died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
“It’s the saddest thing in the world,” Luisi said outside court.
Sanchez faces up to 14 years in prison, but he could also receive probation, according to Luisi.
If Sanchez posts the $150,000 bail, the judge forbade him from driving and ordered him confined to home except for work.
His family declined to comment at the Leighton Criminal Court Building after Monday’s hearing.
Video captured all three vehicles running a red light at Lower Michigan Avenue before the crash, according to a police report.
Friends said Luvianos loved soccer and was in his second year at Triton College, where he was studying to become a police officer. He had just finished his shift working as a wedding coordinator at the Bridgeport Art Center before he went out with his friends Friday night, according to co-worker Julio Nunez.
Sanchez and Luvianos had known each other since elementary school, Nunez said.
While former soccer teammate Vladamir Lagunas said Luvianos “had a big passion for cars,” Nunez noted that he wasn’t known to frequent Lower Wacker.
“He was just a guy everybody could talk to that would always cheer you up,” Nunez said.
The family said a visitation will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at De La Torre Funeral Home, 2708 N. Western Ave.
