A driver miraculously suffered only non-life-threatening injuries after their car was hit by a dump truck and ended up crushed against a tree on Route 83 in Round Lake Beach Friday morning.
The Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District and Round Lake Beach Police Department responded around 10:25 a.m. Friday to Route 83 south of East Millstone Drive, in front of The Home Depot, for reports of a vehicle crash with injuries.
While emergency crews were responding, they received additional reports that someone was trapped in their vehicle and there was heavy damage.
A witness told Lake & McHenry County Scanner that several Good Samaritans rushed to aid the person trapped.
Police officers and firefighter/paramedics quickly arrived and found two dump trucks and a Mercedes-Benz sedan involved in the southbound lanes of Route 83.
The Mercedes sustained heavy damage, and its driver’s side was against a tree with the driver trapped.
A fire truck from the Lake Villa Fire Protection District responded to the scene to assist.
An ambulance, also from the Lake Villa Fire Protection District, was in the area and also assisted.
Firefighters quickly began extrication operations for the driver of the Mercedes.
Greater Round Lake Battalion Fire Chief Jay VandeBerg said the operation was complex due to the extent and configuration of the damage.
Firefighter/paramedics were seen putting a cervical collar on the driver and protecting them while the others used heavy-duty rescue tools to remove multiple doors and the roof of the Mercedes.
The driver was bloody but appeared to be alert and speaking with the rescue crews, a Lake & McHenry County Scanner reporter saw at the scene.
The driver was safely extricated in approximately 10-15 minutes and was rolled into the back of an ambulance from the Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District.
The ambulance transported the driver to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with non-life-threatening injuries, VandeBerg said.
“The crews made a great extrication,” VandeBerg said, adding that no other injuries occurred despite the complexity of the operation.
All other drivers involved in the crash refused to be medically evaluated, VandeBerg said.
A heavy wrecker from A-Tire County Service, based out of Round Lake, was requested.
VandeBerg said the request was made in case crews needed the Mercedes repositioned to make more space for the driver’s side door.
“We want to have multiple plans in place just in case,” he said.
Though not used during the extrication operation, the heavy wrecker still helped reposition the Mercedes afterwards for removal by tow crews.
The heavy wrecker also towed one of the dump trucks involved in the crash.
Firefighters, police officers and the tow truck crews remained on scene cleaning up debris scattered on the roadway.
The southbound lanes of Route 83 were shut down at Millstone Drive while crews tended to the scene.
Round Lake Police Chief Ryan Rodriguez said the preliminary investigation shows a vehicle, which was traveling northbound on Route 83, “entered the path” of a truck traveling in the same direction.
That caused the truck to jackknife and cross into the southbound lanes of Route 83, hitting a truck traveling southbound on Route 83, Rodriguez added.
That truck then hit the Mercedes.
“The northbound vehicle believed to have initiated the crash sequence did not make contact with the other vehicles and continued northbound from the area,” Rodriguez said.
“Officers are working to identify that vehicle and obtain additional information as part of the ongoing investigation.”
The crash remains under investigation by the Round Lake Beach Police Department.