Collision on Route 14 slows traffic
CRYSTAL LAKE – Two people were airlifted to area hospitals Tuesday afternoon after a Kia Sportage sport-utility vehicle slammed into a semi-truck on Route 14 in Crystal Lake.
The semi, a chemical hauler with Enterprise Transportation Co. of Houston, Texas, rolled over and slammed into a brick wall separating the highway from the Coventry Green Professional Building on the southwest corner of Coventry Lane and Route 14.
Crystal Lake Police Chief David Linder said the Sportage was northbound on Coventry around 2 p.m. Tuesday when it collided with the semi, which was east bound on Route 14. Details of the crash, including the identities of the drivers, were unavailable early Tuesday evening.
The Kia came to a rest in the near the curb in an eastbound lane, facing slightly north. The vehicle’s front end was ripped off to the front wheels, and the impact of the collision knocked part of the passenger’s side door out of the vehicle.
The semi rolled onto its driver’s side door. Firefighters had to cut away part of the roof of the cab in order to free the driver. Part of the brick wall into which the truck crash crumbled around the cab.
Onlookers swarmed a police perimeter that for an hour shut down traffic between McHenry Avenue and Devonshire Lane. Applause and cheers of “good job, guys” and “hang in there” greeted the truck driver when firefighters successfully freed him from the cab.
One lane of traffic in each direction was opened around 3:15 p.m., and traffic flowed slowly along the highway as first responders and city public works employees cleaned up the scene.
JoAnn Hiller, of Woodstock, said she was leaving Citibank, 225 W. Virginia St., when she heard what sounded like an explsion.
“I saw it and I just started running,” Hiller said. “I heard the boom and just started running. It was just like watching a movie.”
Hiller said she was one of the first people on the scene in the immediate aftermath of the collision.
“It was scary coming up here,” Hiller said. “I was glad to hear the [truck driver] talking.”
John McConville, a field safety representative for Enterprise Transportation Co., said the driver had been with the company for a few years and had a good driving record. He operated out of the company’s Lake in the Hills terminal and was carrying liquid latex, a chemical used in paint, McConville said.
McConville declined to release the name of the driver, because his family members had not immediately been contacted.
Another Enterprise Transportation semi was sent to the scene about two hours after the crash, and company drivers were busy into Tuesday evening transferring the liquid latex into the second vehicle.