Head-on crash kills one near Elgin
A 41-year-old Elgin man was killed and two people were injured in a violent wreck Monday morning near Elgin's eastern border that forced rescuers to shut down a stretch of Irving Park Road.
The crash was reported at 10 a.m. at Irving Park and King Arthur Court, where two cars hit at what appeared to be high speed, said Battalion Chief Dave Misner, of the Bartlett Fire Department.
"It looked like a bomb went off in the intersection," Misner said.
Penny Mateck, spokeswoman for the Cook County sheriff's department, said a pickup truck and a gray 1999 Porsche Boxster were headed west on Irving Park, a two-lane road with a speed limit of 45 mph.
The driver of the Porsche tried to pass the pickup and veered into the turn lane at King Arthur, hitting a black 2003 Infiniti head-on, Mateck said.
The Porsche driver was ejected from his car and later pronounced dead at Sherman Hospital in Elgin.
Authorities were not releasing the driver's name until his next of kin were notified.
An autopsy is being performed by the Kane County coroner's office late today.
Misner said it took firefighters 15 minutes to extricate the person driving the Infiniti.
The driver, John Ptak, 26, of Elgin was listed in fair condition at Sherman Hospital Monday afternoon, officials said.
A 37-year-old Schaumburg man who was driving the 1994 Chevrolet pickup was taken to Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park with undisclosed injuries.
His truck was struck by a tire from the Porsche.
Both sports cars were mangled in the crash.
The Infiniti's engine appeared to have been shoved under the windshield and its front wheels were separated from the car.
The force of the crash was violent enough to propel a headlight from one of the cars about 75 feet from the scene.
The T intersection of King Arthur Court and Irving Park Road is along the south end of the Poplar Creek Forest Preserve in unincorporated Cook County just east of Elgin.
Elgin firefighters also were at the scene of the crash.
Cook County sheriff's police are investigating the accident. No charges had been filed as of Monday afternoon, Mateck said.