An elderly man was killed, a woman was seriously injured and two children were also injured in a head-on crash that left both drivers trapped inside their cars near McHenry Tuesday morning.
The McHenry Township Fire Protection District, McHenry County Sheriff’s Office and McHenry Police Department responded around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday to the area of Ringwood Road and Martin Road in unincorporated McHenry for a vehicle crash with entrapment.
Emergency crews arrived and found a two-vehicle crash with heavy damage, according to McHenry Township Fire Protection District Battalion Chief David Harwood.
The sheriff’s office said a 2020 Ford Explorer was traveling northbound on Ringwood Road.
A 2013 Toyota Highlander, which was traveling southbound, entered the northbound lane and struck the Ford head-on.
The driver of the Ford was heavily trapped and the driver of the Toyota was also trapped, Harwood said.
Bystanders had removed two children from the Ford before emergency crews arrived.
Both vehicles remained upright, with the Ford coming to rest off the roadway and the Toyota coming to rest in the roadway.
Harwood said it took firefighters approximately 15 minutes to extricate both victims who were trapped in the vehicles.
A LifeNet medical helicopter was requested to the scene and landed across the street at Maranatha Assembly of God, 2505 North Ringwood Road.
The helicopter ended up not being utilized due to the driver of the Toyota being too critically injured.
The driver and sole occupant of the Toyota, a 77-year-old McHenry man, was instead transported in critical condition by ambulance to Northwestern Medicine Hospital in McHenry with the flight crew onboard.
He was pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
A bystander at the scene reported he was near the crash when it occurred.
He said a 6-month-old child and a three-year-old child were in the heavily damaged Ford but were not seriously injured.
The driver of the Ford, a 32-year-old Wonder Lake woman, and the two children were transported to Northwestern Medicine Hospital in McHenry with non-life-threatening injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
Harwood said the children were in good condition and the female driver of the Ford was in serious but stable condition.
The head-on collision resulted in Ringwood Road being completely shut down from Martin Road to Route 120 for several hours.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the circumstances of the crash but has not said what may have caused the crash.