
A worker riding on a lawnmower was seriously injured after being hit by a vehicle, causing him to be ejected from the lawnmower, in front of a school in Gages Lake Sunday morning.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Gurnee Fire Department responded around 11:30 a.m. Sunday to the area of Woodland Primary School and Woodland Elementary School in the 17300 block of West Gages Lake Road in Gages Lake.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said dispatchers received a call of a traffic crash involving a person operating a lawnmower.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived and found the operator of the lawnmower, a 33-year-old Round Lake man, with serious injuries.
He had been operating a lawnmower that he could stand on while it was moving, Covelli said.
A preliminary investigation shows the man was cutting the grass at Woodland Primary School and was crossing the road from north to south.
A Honda Civic, driven by a 72-year-old Wildwood woman, was traveling eastbound.
Covelli said the driver of the Honda was unable to avoid striking the man on the lawnmower and hit him.
The man operating the mower went through the front windshield of the Honda.
The man was transported by ambulance to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
No citations have been issued yet, Covelli said.
It is unknown if the victim was working for the school or an independent lawn care company.
A witness to the crash told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that the victim flew approximately six feet into the air during the collision.
“It was a horrible scene that no one should go through,” the witness said.