Pedestrian killed in accident declined ride home from earlier crash

The pedestrian killed after being struck by a pickup truck near Sugar Grove Monday night had earlier refused a ride home from a Kane County Sheriff’s deputy after being involved in another crash.

Dean F. Craig, 54, of Aurora, was walking east on Jericho Road when he was hit by an eastbound Toyota Tundra pickup truck, according to the sheriff’s office. The accident happened in the stretch between Dugan and Ashe roads.

Craig died at the scene, and the truck driver was not injured. The speed limit on the unlit road is 55 mph.

The Kane County Sheriff’s office said Tuesday that Craig had been in a car crash around 6 p.m. on Dugan Road, a quarter-mile south of Granart Road. While driving north on Dugan, he turned left into a driveway, in front of a southbound vehicle. Both vehicles had to be towed from the site, but nobody was injured, sheriff’s police said.

The deputy who handled that crash offered Craig a ride home, but Craig declined, saying he had called a friend to pick him up, according to the sheriff’s office.

Craig was hit about 30 minutes after the investigation of the first crash was completed, sheriff’s police said.

No citations were issued in the first crash, and none have been issued in the Jericho accident.

“It’s dark out there. There’s nothing,” Kane County Sheriff’s Lt. Pat Gengler said. “It’s not like a city street with streetlights. The only thing out there would be the headlights of the vehicle.”