The 18-year-old Volo woman killed and the 18-year-old Wauconda woman injured in a crash in Volo Wednesday morning had just recently graduated from Wauconda High School and were working for the school, authorities said.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Wauconda Fire Protection District responded around 7:15 a.m. to Route 12 north of Case Road in Volo for a rollover crash with injuries.
Lake County Sheriff Spokesman Christopher Covelli said that sheriff’s deputies arrived and found the driver had suffered critical injuries during the crash. Paramedics pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
Covelli said that a preliminary investigation shows a 2000 GMC pickup truck, driven by an 18-year-old Volo woman, was traveling northbound on Route 12 north of Case Road.
“As the pickup truck traveled north the driver of the vehicle, for an unknown reason, drove off the east side of the roadway. She then overcorrected, likely causing the vehicle to roll,” Covelli said.
The woman was not wearing her seatbelt and was partially ejected from the vehicle. The Lake County Coroner’s Office responded to the scene and has scheduled an autopsy for Thursday.
The passenger, an 18-year-old Wauconda woman, was wearing her seatbelt and suffered minor injuries, Covelli said. She was transported to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington with non-life-threatening injuries.
The pickup truck was carrying a sealcoating container in the truck bed. The container dislodged during the crash and spilled sealcoating materials over the southbound lanes, police said.
The women were summer employees working for Wauconda Community School District 118. Both were class of 2019 graduates of the Wauconda High School.
All lanes of Route 12 were closed for several hours while police investigated and crews cleaned up the crash. Route 12 was re-opened to traffic by noon.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we share that a Class of 2019 Wauconda High School graduate and a summer/seasonal Wauconda School District employee passed away in an automobile accident this morning. Our condolences go out to the family and friends,” the Wauconda School District 118 Support Services Team said.
Counselors will be available for staff, students and community members at Wauconda High School from 5-7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“As a parent, you may want to talk with your child about death because it impacts each person in different ways. How children react will depend on the relationship they had with the person who died, their age, and their prior experience with a loss,” the support team said in a statement.
The crash remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Technical Crash Investigations Unit.