Charges expected in Streamwood crash

Charges are expected in an early morning alcohol-related crash in Streamwood that put four people in the hospital and closed Route 59 for nearly four hours.

The two-vehicle crash, in which speed is believed to be a factor, occurred at 1:55 a.m. at the intersection of Route 59 and Schaumburg Road, Streamwood Deputy Police Chief Jim Keegan said.

Keegan said it appears a 27-year-old Geneva man was intoxicated and driving recklessly with a 28-year-old Bensenville man in the passenger seat when he caused the crash. Authorities first became aware of his erratic driving in East Dundee and alerted other departments.

South Barrington Police Chief Michael Deegan said about 15 minutes before the crash, his police officers observed what they believe was the same car heading south on Route 59.

They clocked it at 120 mph in a 55 mph zone, causing officers to briefly pursue the car as it turned west onto Higgins Road, did a U-turn at Beverly Road and made its way back south on Route 59.

Officers lost sight of the car around I-90 and called off the pursuit. The crash occurred a short time later in Streamwood.

“Our officers can’t be 100 percent sure it was the same car, but that’s the assumption,” Deegan said.

Streamwood’s Keegan said the car crashed into a second vehicle carrying an 18-year-old female driver from Schaumburg and 18-year-old male passenger.

Alcohol was involved in the second vehicle, as well, Keegan said, declining to provide details before the investigation is completed.

The two teenagers have been treated and released, but the men in the car police say caused the crash remain hospitalized with nonlife-threatening injuries at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.

The Streamwood Fire Department, with assistance from Hoffman Estates, extinguished a car fire that ignited due to the crash.