High-speed crash kills Bloomingdale motorcyclist

A high-speed motorcycle crash this week on a residential Lombard street killed a 21-year-old Bloomingdale man, police said Thursday.

The crash, which happened about 5 p.m. Tuesday, was so severe that the motorcycle essentially "disintegrated," sending pieces into the trees and as far as the next street.

The driver, Kent H. Monson, 21, of 220 Glen Ellyn Road, was transported to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead, said Dane Cuny, Lombard's deputy police chief.

A police officer reported seeing a motorcycle heading east on North Avenue without a license plate, and followed it as it turned south onto Grace Street, Cuny said. The motorcycle then turned west on LeMoyne Avenue, at which point Cuny said the officer turned on the car's lights in an attempt to stop the driver.

"At that moment he activated his lights, the motorcycle went at an extremely high rate of speed and the officer lost sight of (it)," Cuny said.

There's a slight ridge on LeMoyne that would have shielded the officer's view of the last block before the road dips and ends at Garfield Street.

It's not clear when Monson's 2006 Yamaha fell down after clearing the ridge, but the motorcycle was on its side when it hit the curb at Garfield, Cuny said.

It knocked out a foot-long section of concrete and "disintegrated," leaving a debris field across the 200-foot deep property, Cuny said.

Monson was found about 200 feet from the road.

An accident reconstruction team brought in to assist with the investigation determined preliminarily that the crash was caused by "extreme" speed, Cuny said.

One of the pieces recovered from the site was a motorcycle license plate, but Cuny said there was no way to tell if it had been attached to the motorcycle.