One person died and a second person was hospitalized after a two-vehicle crash left one of the cars fully engulfed in flames, trapping the driver inside, in North Chicago Sunday afternoon.
The North Chicago Police Department and North Chicago Fire Department responded around 12:05 p.m. Sunday to the 2900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for a report of a vehicle crash with injuries.
911 callers reported one of the vehicles was fully engulfed in flames and a person was possibly still inside the car.
Officers and firefighters arrived to find a two-vehicle crash with one car on fire, according to North Chicago Fire Chief John Umek.
Umek said the car was fully engulfed in flames. The second car, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, was heavily damaged.
The sedan that caught fire came to rest on large bushes and the Jeep came to rest against a fire hydrant.
Both vehicles were only occupied by their drivers. The driver inside the car that caught fire was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the Jeep was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Umek said.
Martin Luther King Jr. Drive was shut down in both directions from Green Bay Road to Hillcrest Avenue for several hours.
The Major Crash Assistance Team of Lake County (MCAT) responded to conduct a crash reconstruction and investigation.
The North Chicago Police Department has not released information on what led to the crash.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office is expected to perform an autopsy on the victim on Monday morning.
The coroner’s office said they suspect the victim was a male and it will take some time to identify him due to the fire.