Two dead in collision of three cars, six motorcycles near Elburn
A married couple from St. Charles was killed in car-vs.-motorcycle crash Saturday morning near Elburn.
Wade and Denise Thomas, ages 44 and 45, were part of a group of motorcyclists heading north on two-lane Route 47 to Wisconsin when a car crash in the oncoming lane sent a car into their path. It is not clear yet if they hit the car or the car hit them, according to accident investigators.
Six other people were taken to hospitals for treatment, five to Delnor Hospital in Geneva and one to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, which has a trauma center to treat severely injured patients.
Kane County Sheriff's Office Lt. Pat Gengler said that it appeared that none of the other victims' injuries were life-threatening.
The crash happened around 8:40 a.m. near Smith Road. A Cadillac was stopped in the southbound lane, waiting to turn left on to Smith. A Honda Civic was stopped behind it. An Oldsmobile Alero, however, drove into the rear of the Civic, pushing it in to the northbound lane, where it crashed with the motorcycles.
The Alero then hit the Cadillac.
The driver of the Alero, 24-year-old Alia N. Bernard of Aurora, was ticketed for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
The accident forced the closing of Route 47 between Main Street and Hughes Road near Elburn for more than six hours, as the sheriff's department and the Kane County Accident Reconstruction Team collected evidence and documented the scene. The Thomases were pronounced dead at the scene shortly after paramedics arrived.
The stretch of mostly rural road is a popular spot for groups of motorcyclists to travel. Saturday's group was not part of any official or organized ride.
One of the motorcycles in the crash ended up several hundred feet off the road, in a field.
It happened just southwest of the Hughes Creek Country Club.
Gengler said it is not clear if drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.