An 89-year-old man has died after he and an elderly woman were critically injured when their car collided with a pole near Gurnee Saturday afternoon.
The Gurnee Police Department responded to a vehicle crash involving a car that struck a traffic pole on Stearns School Road near Fuller Road around 2:15 p.m. Saturday.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said Gurnee police officers determined a separate crash involving the same vehicle initially occurred at Route 41 and Stearns School Road.
The first crash was located in the sheriff’s office jurisdiction, prompting Lake County sheriff’s deputies to respond to the scene.
A preliminary investigation shows an 88-year-old Gurnee woman was driving a Toyota Rav4 southbound on Route 41.
She was attempting to make a right turn onto westbound Stearns School Road, Covelli said.
A Kia Forte, driven by a 20-year-old Richmond woman, was attempting to make a left turn onto westbound Stearns School Road from northbound Route 41.
Witnesses reported the traffic light turned from green, to yellow, to red, when both drivers made their respective turns, turning into one another, causing relatively minor damage.
Covelli said an 89-year-old Gurnee man, who was in the passenger seat of the Toyota, reported that the driver of the Toyota pressed the accelerator instead of the brake.
It caused the Toyota to accelerate to a high speed and strike a utility pole near the intersection of Stearns School Road and Fuller Road, Covelli said.
Both the driver and passenger in the Toyota were transported to an area hospital with critical, life-threatening injuries.
On Monday, Covelli said in an update that the 89-year-old passenger in the Toyota had died in the hospital.
An autopsy was expected to be performed Monday by the Lake County Coroner’s Office.
The 20-year-old driver of the Kia was uninjured, Covelli said.
The crash remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Team.