Family and friends are mourning the deaths of two West Lafayette children killed in a fiery, two-vehicle crash in a Chicago suburb on Sunday.

Claire Hockerman, 14, and her 5-year-old brother, Nathan, were pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. Sunday at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, Ill., according to a representative with the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Police suspect a drunken driver caused the crash in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park.
"It's a tragedy," Guy Hockerman, the children's uncle, said via cell phone from a Chicago-area hospital. "It's a minute-by-minute thing, hour-by-hour. ... There's a lot of prayer, a lot of crying."

Greg and Sherry Hockerman and their children, Claire, Nathan and 11-year-old Paul, were returning from a 2-week vacation in Switzerland. They had flown into O'Hare International Airport, and were on their home to West Lafayette.

Police said the Hockermans left an off-site airport parking garage Sunday afternoon and were driving through an intersection when a pickup truck ran a red light and struck the family's minivan. Greg, Sherry and Paul Hockerman escaped the van when it caught fire.

"The prognosis for Greg and Sherry and for Paul, physically, is good," Guy Hockerman said. "They have some burns to deal with. ... But I guess (emotionally), Greg and Sherry, in particular, are doing as well as they can."

The driver of the pickup, Ralph Pollock, 47, of Schaumburg, Ill., was arrested on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and disobeying a traffic control device. Franklin Park police chief Randy Petersen said the charges could be enhanced to reckless homicide.

Friends from West Lafayette's Maple Ridge Community Church, where the Hockermans attend, and several family members were at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., on Monday.

The church held a prayer service Monday night.

Sherry and Paul Hockerman are expected to be released from the hospital today. The family didn't know Monday when Greg Hockerman, who suffered burns on his arms and head, would be released. Both Sherry and Greg Hockerman were listed in fair condition late Monday, Loyola hospital spokeswoman Joanna Swanson said. No information was available for Paul.

"Apparently, Greg was going back in to try to get Claire and Nathan out," Guy Hockerman said. "And I think Sherry was trying to get the back door open. Other witnesses were trying to help any way they could."

Petersen said witnesses and others were unable to get Claire and Nathan Hockerman out because of the way they were seated in the van as well as the intense flames.

"Thirty-three years and this is about the worst one I've seen," Petersen said of the crash. "Horrific."

Claire Hockerman, 14, would have been in eighth grade at Klondike Middle School this fall. Principal Tony Guth said Claire was a "great student" who participated in numerous activities, including National Junior Honor Society, Klondike's peer mediator group and the basketball team.

"She led by example - one of those students that will leave a big gap for us," Guth said.

Nathan Hockerman, 5, would have started kindergarten in the fall. His pre-kindergarten teacher, Melody Dewell, said the boy was full of energy, had a clear sense of right and wrong and strongly believed in God.

"The thing that strikes me about him was Nathan's belief in God and how well he could express it," said Dewell, who teaches at Covenant Kids Alive Preschool. "He had a very strong faith, and for only being 5, he could put it so well."

Greg Hockerman is an associate professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Purdue University. Sherry Hockerman has been a coordinator for Sunshine and Smiles, a program from Area IV Agency on Aging and Community Action.

Paul Hockerman, 11, finished fifth grade at Burnett Creek Elementary this spring. His sister, Claire, had attended fourth and fifth grade at the elementary and was in the gifted and talented program there.