Tag Archives: Millennium Park

Honeymooning couple shares story of being in cab that crashed into tree near Millennium Park ice rink

If you think you have an interesting story to tell about your honeymoon, you’ve probably got nothing compared to Joel Obrecht and Teresa Fedor of Toledo, Ohio.

The newlyweds were honeymooning in Chicago over the New Year’s holiday when they almost wound up on the ice rink at Millennium Park. But in a taxicab, not on ice skates.

Obrecht and Fedor were the passengers in the cab that veered off the road and crashed into a tree near the ice rink in Millennium Park in the Loop on Monday afternoon.

The couple, married just four days ago, says they hailed the cab near their hotel to go to Millennium Park. The driver, a 66-year-old man, attempted a U-turn in an effort to drop Obrecht and Fedor off on Michigan Ave., but he hit a curb and wound up driving over two different medians, across three lanes of traffic, over a sidewalk and through fence barriers and a bike rack before finally hitting a tree near near the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink.

Fortunately, the newlyweds weren’t badly injured, though they did say Tuesday they were sore. Teresa did hit her head, but thankfully she did not sustain a concussion.

Mainly, Obrecht and Fedor were just thankful nobody outside the cab was hurt and expressed gratitude for bystanders who jumped in to help them.

“There were police officers there within minutes, literally,” Obrecht said. “An off-duty doctor (and) a nurse were ice skating. They were to the cab within less than a minute and started triage on all of us.

“So I think that’s just a wonderful tribute to your first responders and to the citizens here in Chicago.”

And the incident won’t deter them from visiting Chicago in the future.

After all, where else do they have a memory like this one?

“This was an experience that absolutely will not deter us from coming back,” Teresa confirmed. “We are coming back. We plan on coming back, because this was our spot for our honeymoon.

“It’s very sentimental and special to us.”