Des Plaines police make arrest after fatal hit-and-run

Des Plaines police have arrested a driver accused of fatally striking a 52-year-old man and driving away Tuesday morning, according to a news release Wednesday.

Henry Houston, 66, of the 11000 block of South Front Street in Chicago, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death after the fatal collision on Wolf Road near Jarvis Avenue about 6:05 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

Roman Polniak, 52, and co-worker Joaquin Areilano, 56, had exited a Pace bus and were crossing Wolf Road, when a white work van traveling north struck both men, police said. The driver of the van continued traveling north from the scene, police said.

Des Plaines firefighters took both men to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, where Polniak, of the 3000 block of N. Haussen Court in Chicago, was pronounced dead shortly after 7 a.m., according to the Cook County Coroner's Office. Areilano, of the 5000 block of 29th Street in Cicero, stayed at the hospital overnight with injuries not considered life-threatening, police said.

After the crash, police shut down the road and detectives searched for a white van at nearby manufacturing businesses, Police Chief Bill Kushner said.

Police reported finding a matching vehicle with front-end damage parked about a half mile from the scene in the 2000 block of Clearwater Avenue, police said.

Houston was charged after detectives investigated the scene and interviewed witnesses, police said.

Houston was scheduled to appear at a bond hearing in Skokie on Thursday.