A 33-year-old man is in a coma fighting for his life in the ICU a week and a half after he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle near Libertyville.
The Libertyville Fire Department and Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded around 12 p.m. on November 9 to the area of Rockland Road west of Rockland Lane in unincorporated Libertyville for a vehicle crash with injuries.
Deputies arrived to find a crash involving a car and a bicyclist on Rockland Road at the Des Plaines River pedestrian and bicycle trail.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said a man, identified as Luke Nedza, 33, of Mundelein, was found critically injured.
A preliminary investigation shows Nedza was traveling northbound on the Des Plaines River Trail when he attempted to cross West Rockland Road.
He was struck by a westbound Toyota Prius, driven by a 39-year-old man from Gurnee, Covelli said.
The impact appeared to have thrown Nedza onto the vehicle’s front windshield before he fell to the ground.
Covelli said the bicyclist was transported to a local hospital with critical, life-threatening injuries.
The driver of the Toyota, as well as a child passenger, were uninjured.
Rockland Road was shut down for several hours while crash investigators investigated the scene.
Friends of Nedza said the man suffered severe head trauma and is fighting for his life in a coma in the intensive care unit at Advocate Condell.
The friends created a GoFundMe account to raise money to relieve the financial burden from his family as they “navigate this heartbreaking circumstance.”
The account has raised over $23,000 from over 150 donors.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Team continues to actively investigate the circumstances of the collision, Covelli said.