By Kristen Kridel and Jason Meisner
Chicago Tribune
Copyright 2007 Chicago Tribune Company
CHICAGO — Inspired by the Chicago Fire Department paramedic who was struck and killed by a car in Schaumburg early Thursday, Bradley Orzada, 3, has had his Halloween costume planned for months.
“He said, ‘I want to be a fireman just like Uncle Randy,’” said Lisa Orzada, Bradley’s mother and Randy Orzada’s sister-in-law.
Adored by his family and neighbors, Randy Orzada, 43, of Chicago was hit after a flat tire forced him from his vehicle about 3:30 a.m. near Algonquin and Old Plum Grove Roads, Schaumburg Police Sgt. John Nebl said. Orzada, who had parked his car in the curbside lane of westbound Algonquin Road, was either walking or standing in the eastbound lanes when he was struck by a 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier.
The driver of the Cavalier stopped to help Orzada until paramedics arrived. But Orzada, who was off-duty when the accident occurred, was pronounced dead before 5 a.m. at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Nebl said.
On Thursday afternoon, his neighbors expressed sorrow that someone who had spent his life helping others would be run over in the road because of a flat tire.
Phyllis Lampariello said Orzada was a gentleman who always held the door for his neighbors and helped them carry their bags. When she got a nosebleed at 3 a.m. one day, he helped her daughter stop the bleeding, she recalled.
“I liked him so much,” Lampariello said. “I’m going to miss him so much. I just can’t come to grips with it.”
Orzada was a 10-year veteran of the Chicago Fire Department who was assigned to Ambulance 48 on the Northwest Side, according to the department.
Being a paramedic allowed him to live a full life, said his twin brother, Mark. “He enjoyed helping people,” he said. “That was his goal.”
Randy Orzada, who was single, treated his nephew as his own, Lisa Orzada said. Bradley “was the apple of his eye,” she said.
Randy Orzada often brought Bradley books and Fire Department shirts. “I think he was planting the seed in him,” she said.
Bradley’s parents gave him his uncle’s Fire Department commemorative badge when they told the boy about his death. He carried it around Thursday evening, showing it off proudly.
Randy Orzada’s family did not know why he was in Schaumburg on Thursday morning but said he has friends who live there.
The driver of the Cavalier, a 42-year-old Crystal Lake man who was on his way to work, never saw Orzada, Nebl said.
“He felt the impact and immediately stopped his car and saw the victim lying behind the car and began rendering first aid,” Nebl said.
There was no indication that the driver, who has been cooperating with investigators, was impaired, Nebl said. No charges had been filed Thursday evening. Police declined to identify the driver.
Reporter Dan Blake contributed to this report.