Three killed, one injured in head-on crash in Deer Park

Three men died and another was hospitalized following a head-on crash between a taxi cab and a Lexus in Deer Park early Saturday, police said.

The driver of the taxi was identified as 51-year-old Jozef Zwalimski of Palatine, according to the Lake County Coroner's Office. Alonso Ramos-Gomez, 22, of West Dundee was identified as the driver of the Lexus and 23-year-old Octavio Carrera of Palatine is the passenger who died. Another passenger in the Lexus was taken to the hospital.

Kildeer police were called to the scene at Lake-Cook Road and Park Hill Drive in Deer Park at 5:12 a.m. Saturday, and officers determined that the drivers of both vehicles were dead.

Carrera and the other passenger in the Lexus were taken to Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington by Lake Zurich paramedics. Carrera was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to Lake County Coroner Richard Keller.

A hospital spokesman said they couldn't comment on the condition of the surviving passenger until the identity was formally released, although he did add it took four hours to extricate the person from the wreckage.

Autopsies determined cause of death was multiple trauma in all cases, Keller said. Toxicology tests would not be released until Monday or Tuesday.

The Major Crash Accident Team was called to reconstruct the accident scene, as the Kildeer police continued to investigate the cause of the fatal crash.

Authorities are seeking subpoenas for the cars' black boxes, if both had them. The boxes, included on many more recent car models, are computer devices that record a car's movement. The devices could include information about the movement of the cars before the accident, police said.

"If they were in the cars, we'll be taking a look at them," Keller said.