Authorities said that the fatal crash in Hebron Township on Thursday was reportedly caused after the driver hit a snow patch and lost control, crashing head-on into another car.
Emergency crews responded at 12:17 a.m. to a two-vehicle crash in the 9800 block of Route 173, west of Lange Road, in unincorporated Hebron Township.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office said that a 2004 Mazda Tribute, driven by a 20-year-old Woodstock woman, was driving eastbound on Route 173. A 2010 Dodge Journey, driven by a 56-year-old woman from Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, was driving westbound. The Mazda drove into the westbound lane of traffic where it collided with the Dodge.
The front seat passenger of the Mazda, 44-year-old Silvia Ortiz-Ayala from Woodstock, was extricated from the car and transported to Mercy Hospital in Harvard where she was pronounced dead. The drivers of both vehicles were transported by ambulance to Centegra Hospital-McHenry. Both were in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
This was the second fatal crash in McHenry County within a three-hour period, officials said.
An autopsy performed onย Ortiz-Ayala on Friday revealed that she died from blunt trauma to the spine, chest and abdomen.
Authorities said that the driver of the Mazda reportedly hit a snow patch, lost control of the car crossing the center line and striking the Dodge.
The Hebron-Alden-Greenwood Township Fire Protection District, Wonder Lake Fire Protection District, Richmond Fire Protection District, Spring Grove Fire Protection District, Mercy MD-1 and Flight for Life also responded to the scene.
The crash remains under investigation by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Major Crash Investigation Unit and the McHenry County Coroner’s Office.