Two killed in head-on collision on Route 53 early Tuesday
A 21-year-old Mount Prospect man driving south in the northbound lanes of Route 53 in Rolling Meadows and another driver were killed early Tuesday in a head-on collision, authorities said.
Illinois State Police identified Zachary Sipe as the driver of a 2014 Toyota heading south in the northbound lanes of Route 53 near Euclid Avenue at 3:56 a.m.
Police said Sipe's vehicle first collided head-on with a 2010 Chevrolet driven by Jarrod Oden, 43, of Palatine. Oden survived.
Sipe then continued in the wrong direction and hit a 2006 Toyota taxi driven by Peter Wierzbicki, 64, of Lisle. Wierzbicki was pronounced dead at the scene.
A relative of Sipe declined to comment when contacted Tuesday at the family's Mount Prospect home. Northwest Suburban High School District 214 officials confirmed Sipe was a 2013 graduate of Wheeling High School.
Joe Zayed, president of Mount Prospect-based American Taxi, said Wierzbicki had been a driver for the company since 2009 but was not working at the time of the crash.
"He was an extremely nice guy, very friendly. We never had any complaints about him from customers, just comments about how good of a person he was," Zayed said. "This is not an easy thing."
There was no official word on Oden's condition, but the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he refused treatment at the scene, and a witness told ABC 7 Chicago that he checked on Oden at the scene.
"His (car) took the damage. His air bag went off, but he had the seat belt on. He was fine," Leon Ruther said.
Raymond Galindo was on Route 53 moments before the fatal crash when he saw Sipe's headlights coming right at him, he told ABC 7.
"I see headlights coming towards me. It happened so fast, I didn't have time to react," Galindo said. "It was so close that his driver's-side mirror almost touched my driver's-side mirror. When it passed me up, it looked like it was going 100 miles an hour."
"I just could tell that they weren't looking for an exit," Galindo said. "I just felt like that person in that car felt like they were on their side of the road, like they were on the right side of the road."
Illinois State Police did not provide details on why Sipe was driving the wrong way, how fast he was going or where he entered the expressway.
Northbound Route 53 was closed for several hours after the crash as the investigation went on, but all lanes were reopened about 8:45 a.m., state police said. The crash remains under investigation.
• Daily Herald staff writer Lee Filas contributed to this story.