The sheriff’s office says an elderly man flown to the hospital with critical injuries failed to yield while crossing the road, resulting in a crash between his bicycle and a car near Cary Tuesday evening.
The Cary Fire Protection District, McHenry County Sheriff’s Office and McHenry County Conservation District Police responded around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday to the 6500 block of Silver Lake Road in unincorporated Cary for a report of a vehicle crash.
Firefighters and paramedics arrived and located an adult male lying in the roadway, according to Cary Fire Protection District Public Information Officer Alex Vucha.
The man had been riding his bicycle when he was involved in a collision with a small sedan near the intersection of Killarney Drive and Silver Lake Road.
The sheriff’s office said a preliminary investigation shows that a 2015 Honda Civic was traveling southbound on Silver Lake Road when it struck the bicyclist who entered the roadway from Killarney Drive.
The bicyclist, a 69-year-old Cary man, was ejected from the bike.
The victim had suffered critical injuries and lifesaving measures were initiated at the scene, Vucha said.
A LifeNet medical helicopter was requested and landed at the helipad at Mercyhealth Hospital in Crystal Lake.
An ambulance transported him to the helipad and he was transferred to the flight crew.
Vucha said the man was then airlifted to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, which is a Level 1 trauma center, for further treatment.
The driver of the sedan was not injured in the crash and they declined transport to the hospital.
The intersection of Silver Lake Road and Killarney Drive is controlled by a stop sign only for traffic on Killarney Drive.
The sheriff’s office said the bicyclist failed to stop or yield before entering Silver Lake Road.
The driver of the Honda, a 26-year-old Crystal Lake man, is fully cooperating with the investigation.
Silver Lake Road was shut down in both directions from Killarney Drive to Walnut Drive to allow emergency personnel to work safely and to accommodate the law enforcement investigation.
The roadway was reopened around 10:20 p.m., over four hours after the crash, the sheriff’s office said.
The crash remains under investigation by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Major Crash Investigation Unit.