In re APPLICATION OF LINDA A. (DANIELS) HEININGER Opinionflled]une 29,1993
Case summary
The widow of Detective Roy E. Heininger sought compensation under the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen Compensation Act for his death in a car crash. The court denied the claim because the detective's blood-alcohol concentration of .207 at the time of death constituted intoxication, excluding the death from being 'killed in the line of duty.'
Statutes cited: Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 48, par. 281 et seq.; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 48, par. 282(e)
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Headnotes
- SAME-OffiCC?. intoxicated at time of auto accident resulting in his death-claim denied. A police officer who died from injuries sustained when he drove his unmarked police car into the rear of a truck was not “killed in the line of duty” as required by the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen
- Compensation Act, where he had a blood-alcohol concentration of .207 at the time of his death, and a claim by the officer’s widow under the Act was therefore denied.
OPINION
FREDERICK, J.
This claim is before the Court by reason of the death of Roy E. Reininger, who was a detective with the Village of Schaumburg Police Department. Detective Reininger’s widow, Linda A. (Daniels) Reininger, seeks compensation pursuant to the terms and provisions of the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen Compensation Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 48,par. 281 et seq.).
The Court has carefully considered the claim for death benefits submitted herein, together with the written statement of Detective Reininger’s supervising officer and documentation submitted therewith, the medical [*369] examiner’s certificate of death, autopsy report, case report, the decedent’s designation of beneficiary form, and the report of the Attorney General.
The instant claim was filed herein on April 9, 1993, by Linda A. (Daniels) Reininger, widow of Roy E. Reininger, who died on December 31,1992, while a detective with the Village of Schaumburg Police Department.
The record reveals that Detective Reininger was killed on December 31, 1992, when he drove an unmarked police car into the rear of a truck on Schaumburg Road at its intersection with Branchwood Drive in the Village of Schaumburg, Illinois. Detective Reininger was pronounced dead on December 31, 1992, at Humana Hospital of Hoffman Estates. The certificate of death indicates that the cause of death was multiple injuries due to an automobile-truck collision.
Detective Reininger is survived by his wife, Linda A. (Daniels) Reininger, the Claimant herein, and she was named as the sole beneficiary of any benefits payable under the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen Compensation Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 48,par. 281 et seq.).
A precondition to the granting of compensation under the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen Compensation Act, supra, is that the law enforcement officer have been “killed in the line of duty.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 48,par. 282(e).) The Act further dictates that, “The term (killed in the line of duty) excludes death resulting from willful misconduct or intoxication of the officei9 9 0 ”
According to Captain Casler’s statement of supervising officer and the toxicology analysis attached to the [*370] autopsy report, Detective Reininger liad a blood-alcohol concentration of .207 at the time of his death. Since this exceeds the limit for the legal definition of intoxication, it appears that Detective Reininger was not “killed in the line of duty” as required by the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen Compensation Act.
It is therefore ordered that the claim of Linda A. (Daniels) Reininger for compensation under the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen (Compensation Act, supra, be, and hereby is, denied.