Arlington Heights trustee, fellow passerby help rescue crash victim

Arlington Heights Village Trustee Tom Glasgow was on his way to a family dinner Monday evening to celebrate his 44th birthday when he found himself and a fellow passer-by helping to rescue a man whose SUV slammed into a light pole on Algonquin Road, just east of the Route 53 overpass.

The SUV’s driver, Aleksy Leonczuk, 61, of Rolling Meadows, remained undergoing treatment Tuesday at Northwest Community Hospital, said Rolling Meadows police Sgt. Tom Gadomski. His condition was not available.

Police said Leonczuk had just driven from the off ramp of northbound Route 53 when the crash occurred.

“The car started coasting through the intersection on its own,” said witness Dushan Radakovic of Wheeling, who called 911 and stopped to help. “At first I thought he was just sneaking through the red light, but then he hit the light pole.”

Glasgow said he stopped when he saw the driver slumped over behind the wheel. The two men thought Leonczuk might have suffered a heart attack and got him from the vehicle. They laid him on the ground, with Radakovic holding Leonczuk’s head to clear his airway while Glasgow performed CPR until Rolling Meadows firefighters arrived.

“God puts you in different places at different times, and I hope that what I did amounts to something good,” said Glasgow, an attorney who had CPR skills fresh in his mind from a recent event for public officials at the Northern Illinois Public Safety Academy in Glenview.

“I was up all night thinking about it and wondering ‘Did I move fast enough, did I do things right?’” he said.

The crash occurred about 5:30 p.m., during the middle of rush hour, and authorities closed the eastbound lanes of Algonquin Road while clearing the scene and as a precaution against the damaged light pole falling onto the roadway.

Police said they are reviewing red-light camera footage from the intersection as part of their ongoing investigation.