Nicole M. and Devin J. Westerhoff
Mother and Son

Mike Donovan wants people to know about his 23-year-old daughter, Nicole M. Westerhoff. She planned to learn sign language so she could work with developmentally disabled children. Donovan also wants people to know about his grandson, 4-year-old Devin J. Westerhoff. He loved Spider-Man, playing with Matchbox cars and "chocolate juice," his term for chocolate milk. "I do not want my little girl and grandson to become another statistic," Donovan said.

"Something has to change. I will not let this go." Nicole Westerhoff and her son were killed in a horrific crash along a dark, two-lane stretch of Fabyan Parkway in West Chicago. The crash sent Westerhoff's car into a ditch, and the impact split in half the car driven by 27-year-old Matthew A. Lane of Glen Ellyn. Lane - who had racked up at least 32 speeding tickets in the suburbs the past 11 years - died at the same hospital emergency room as the child, who had to be cut out of his car seat. Nicole Westerhoff was pronounced dead at the scene. West Chicago Deputy Police Chief Don Goncher said there were no obvious signs of alcohol or drug use at the accident scene. Toxicology tests should provide definitive answers. At least three people have died since 2001 in the stretch of Fabyan, which has a sharp unlighted turn. But that's not what angers Donovan. Despite his chronic speeding, Lane still had a valid Illinois driver's license.

"If I had to sum it up in one word, that word is 'wrong,' " Donovan said. "There is no reason anybody should be driving with a record like that." Donovan's grief has transformed into anger and a gritty determination to enact change. He's set up a Web site, www.faces4.org, as a memorial to them. He wants people to visit it and talk about how they feel and what needs to change. Many of the visitors were family and friends, but others were strangers, providing comfort and prayers and questioning why this had to happen. Donovan's friends are calling Oprah Winfrey's production company and other shows. Some are calling back. "I want people to hear about my daughter next week, next month, next year," Donovan said. "A lot of people are mad about this, and I want them to be."

As a kid, Nicole Donovan would improvise lyrics to Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?" As a toddler, she danced to Van Halen's "Jump." Shortly after Nicole was born in Hazelcrest, the family moved to southern California. They returned in the mid-1990s to South suburban Worth. Nicole met Harry "Buddy" Westerhoff when she was 14. The high school sweethearts married in 2001 and were renting a townhouse in North Aurora. They were saving to buy a home; they didn't want Devin to be an only child. Buddy worked in construction; Nicole was searching for a career to help people. She tried her hand at being a caregiver a few years ago. But Nicole found it to be too painful after the elderly woman died. Mike Donovan said his daughter would crouch down like a baseball catcher when talking with kids because she wanted to be at their level. Devin, nicknamed "DJ," was full of energy, wrestling with the dog, revving up his Matchbox cars.

The accident

Matthew Lane was headed to his parents' home in Wheaton following work about 8:30 p.m. Monday. He was eastbound on Fabyan Parkway in his 1995 Ferrari Berlinetta. Nicole Westerhoff was westbound in her 1991 Toyota Corolla. It usually took Nicole about 40 minutes to drive from her parents' house to her home in North Aurora. When she didn't show, her husband began to worry.

He couldn't reach Nicole on her cell phone, so Buddy Westerhoff drove to Fabyan Parkway. The road was blocked off by police and fire trucks. Mike Donovan called the police, then Central DuPage Hospital. He learned there was a serious accident and rushed to the emergency room.

There, Donovan and his wife held little Devin's lifeless body - which they had seen full of energy just hours earlier. "That's the last vision I have of him," Donovan said, "a little 4-year-old, bruised-up body." But Donovan is resolved to make something constructive come from the tragedy - harsher laws for chronic speeding, better public awareness about traffic safety. Or even just getting parents to hug their kids a little tighter at night. "What am I going to do - sit here and mourn and die?" Donovan said. "Instead of it killing us, I'm going to make sure it makes us stronger."