Minor injuries in Itasca car, truck collision

The collision of a car and semi-trailer truck in Itasca during Wednesday's afternoon commute resulted in only minor injuries but a diesel fuel spill that caused more than two hours of lane closures.

According to police, a 19-year-old Elk Grove Village man was driving a car westbound on Devon Avenue when it crossed over the center line into oncoming eastbound traffic near the intersection of Bay Drive, east of Park Boulevard, at about 4:09 p.m. Wednesday.

Itasca police Sgt. John Matuga said a 35-year-old truck driver from Skokie steered to avoid a collision but struck the car anyway, ending up jackknifed and leaking fuel in a ditch.

Both drivers were transported to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, the truck driver more as a precautionary measure, Matuga said.

The 19-year-old from Elk Grove was treated and released for minor head injuries, Matuga added, but was cited with driving too fast for conditions, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Matuga suspected that weather conditions may have also been a contributing factor, but said that aspect of the investigation was still open.

While the accident scene was being cleaned up and the truck towed from the scene, eastbound traffic on Devon was detoured at Park Boulevard while westbound traffic was down to one lane until about 6:20 p.m.

The names of both drivers were not released by police Wednesday.