Police said that two people seriously injured late Sunday evening during a fiery crash involving a wrong-way driver in Round Lake Beach are expected to survive.
The Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District and the Round Lake Beach Police Department responded around 11:30 p.m. to the area of Rollins Road and North Hickory Avenue in Round Lake Beach.
The crash happened in front of State Bank of The Lakes, 10 East Rollins Road. Emergency crews found a 1997 GMC pickup truck and a 2000 Toyota sedan with heavy damage after crashing head-on.
The pickup truck, driven by a 27-year-old Beach Park man, was on fire and police used a fire extinguisher to put it out, Round Lake Beach Deputy Police Chief Michael Scott said. The 27-year-old man in the pickup truck and the driver of the Toyota, a 59-year-old Wildwood man, were both trapped in their vehicles.
Firefighters extricated both men, who suffered serious injuries, and transported them to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. Their current conditions are unknown but they were thought to have suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Scott said.
A witness told police that the pickup truck was driving eastbound on Rollins Road when it left its lane and crossed into the westbound lanes, colliding with the Toyota that was driving westbound.
Authorities have not released the name of either driver involved. There were no passengers in either vehicle, police said.
The Lake County Major Crash Assistance Team was called to the scene. Eastbound and westbound lanes of Rollins Road were shutdown for several hours while authorities investigated.
While police were investigating, a 2014 Dodge van drove into the scene around 2:08 a.m. and crashed into an unoccupied vehicle of a volunteer directing traffic, causing significant damage to the car.
Police said the 32-year-old Fox Lake man driving the van told them he fell asleep at the wheel. He was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
The original crash remains under investigation by the Round Lake Beach Police Department and the Lake County Major Crash Assistance Team.