Elgin officer in critical condition after motorcycle crash
An Elgin police sergeant is in critical condition and was charged with DUI after a motorcycle crash Thursday in DeKalb County, officials said.
Sgt. Ken Ericson was injured in the crash at about 3 p.m. Thursday at the intersection of Glidden and Base Line roads, said DeKalb County Sheriff Chief Deputy Andy Sullivan.
Ericson, 49, was on his motorcycle traveling east on Base Line Road, failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed into a northbound vehicle on Glidden Road, according to the report.
Ericson was not wearing a helmet, Sullivan said. The driver of the vehicle, a 51-year-old man from Rochelle, was uninjured.
Ericson was charged with driving under the influence and failing to yield at a stop sign after witness accounts and testing results from OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, where Ericson was airlifted, Sullivan said.
"Our thoughts are with him and his family," Elgin Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said.
Ericson was featured in a video that was hailed as an example of good policing and went viral in September 2015. Ericson defused a potentially volatile situation by addressing in a friendly but firm manner a large group of young people who had been loitering in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in Elgin.