Yet another fatal crash occured in Kane County Sunday afternoon as a collision at the intersection of Walker Road and IL Route 72 in Hampshire Township resulted in the death of a passenger.
According to the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, early Sunday evening a 2015 Nissan Pathfinder was traveling north on Walker Road and initially stopped at the stop sign at the intersection of IL Route 72. The driver then proceeded forward into the intersection where he struck a 2008 Chevrolet sedan that was traveling east on IL Route 72, causing it to roll several times and come to rest on a property on the northeast side of the intersection.
The passenger of the Chevrolet Sedan, Wilbert Parker, 50 years old of Elgin, was found deceased within the vehicle compartment.
Hampshire and Burlington Fire Departments worked to extricate the driver of the Chevrolet sedan for nearly an hour and she was then airlifted to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Rockford in critical condition.
The driver of the Nissan Pathfinder was uninjured, but transported to a local hospital for evaluation. It is unknown if drugs or alcohol are a factor at this time.
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain is bothered by what he termed an “atypical last few weeks with several fatal crashes throughout Kane County.” While all accidents have been in varying locations and the cause has been for different reasons, he asserts that they mostly reflect a lack of awareness or attention to the drivers’ surroundings.
“Even if we had deputies on every corner of the county, most of these crashes would’ve still occurred,” he said in a release. “I have spoken frequently on the increased lack of responsibility of drivers for the safety of one another, especially since the pandemic. We continue our traffic enforcement campaigns across all 550 square miles of this county, but this is also a societal issue at this point.”