A truck driver who struck and killed a 4-year-old boy on a South Side street while driving with a THC level more than three times the legal limit has been sentenced to four years in prison. Prosecutors said James Bernstein, 55, also had cocaine metabolites in his system at the time of the June 2, 2024, crash that killed Xyaire Askew in Avalon Park.
Bernstein was driving a 2021 dual-wheeled Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck when he made a right turn from 82nd Street onto Harper Avenue at about 4:30 p.m. and struck Xyaire, who had run into Harper Avenue while playing with friends, according to officials.
After hitting the child, Bernstein then “drove over the victim’s chest and head” as he “went to pull over” at the scene, prosecutors said in a detention petition. Xyaire was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital about 30 minutes later…