Fatal crash renews calls for safety upgrades on Kirchoff Road in Rolling Meadows

A number of safety improvements, from lane reductions to installation of a stop light, have been proposed over the years on Kirchoff Road in Rolling Meadows, where a fatal crash occurred early Tuesday,

Now an alderman suggests, at the very least, the city reduce speed limits on the primary thoroughfare through the center of town.

“If we can’t get rid of the ‘Rolling Meadows expressway’ being as wide as it is, at least we can reduce the speed for the safety of the children who cross it (to go to school), people who cross it going to the Jewel food store, and the people who use it to cross to go to the public library,” Alderman Nick Budmats said.

Budmats’ request to modify the posted speed from 35 mph to 30 mph along the five-lane Kirchoff corridor — from Wilke Road on the east to Plum Grove Road on the west — now goes to a traffic review committee made up of representatives from the police, fire, public works and community development departments.

The panel will review engineering data and accident history. If the panel decides a change is warranted, the city council would ultimately vote on its recommendation for a revised speed limit.

Budmats’ proposal came at a council meeting hours after a car struck a tree on the 2100 block of Kirchoff, killing 20-year-old driver Samia Yonfa and critically injuring a passenger.

Yonfa, a 2024 Rolling Meadows High School graduate, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Her passenger had surgery for life-threatening injuries and is expected to recover, Police Chief Tony Peluso said.

The sedan, which was headed eastbound, crossed into the westbound lanes and collided with a large tree at 2:19 a.m. Tuesday, according to police and witnesses.

Peluso said it’s not clear why or how the crash occurred.

It’s also unknown how fast the car was going. Authorities said Wednesday they should have an estimate in two to three weeks after data is retrieved and analyzed.

But the vehicle was “obviously traveling an incredible rate of speed,” said Mark Stastny, a homeowner who was awoken by the sound of the impact.

The car struck garbage cans and narrowly missed a car parked on a driveway before crossing front yards and colliding into the mature tree in Stastny’s front yard.

“You can see the tire marks on my driveway, and you can see the path that the car took coming off Kirchoff,” said Stastny, who lives on the north side of the street.

It’s the latest fatality on the busy street, which is near three schools and two parks. Residents have clamored for safety changes for years.

Stastny, who has lived on Kirchoff for 35 years, remembers when, in December 2022, an 82-year-old woman and her dog were struck and killed by a car just down the block from his house.

He compared the local roadway to a “drag-strip.”

“This stretch of Kirchoff has developed some infamy,” Stastny said. “But what transpired (Tuesday) morning was off the chart.”

It comes about a year after a contentious public debate over a proposal to shrink a milelong stretch of Kirchoff — a move that supporters like Budmats argue would have improved safety. The so-called road diet would have removed an eastbound lane and a westbound lane and replaced them with on-street parking spaces and protected bike lanes.

Advocates argued the lane reductions would have calmed driving speeds, improved safety, and reduced the frequency of accidents involving vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. But opponents said the plan would have increased traffic congestion and hindered businesses.

Ultimately, the council voted 4-3 to keep Kirchoff the way it is.

Then last July, a consultant hired by the council to study alternative plans recommended installation of a 10-foot raised median refuge island some 300 feet east of Kirchoff’s intersection with Oriole Lane, along with rectangular rapid flashing beacons with push buttons that activate yellow blinking lights.

Some aldermen like Budmats have held out hope for a stop light, though an earlier analysis from another consultant determined the number of accidents and vehicles at the intersection didn’t warrant a full traffic signal.

Implementation of any of the pedestrian crossing upgrades was deferred pending completion of a pedestrian and bike study by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Stastny has lobbied for speed cameras, but those are only allowed in Illinois municipalities with populations over 1 million, under state law.

He’s also suggested police post a squad car in the area or warn drivers on social media that they’re going to ticket for speeding.

“This is a changing neighborhood. The elderly people who first moved in here have either passed on or their families have sold. There are more families now on this stretch of Kirchoff Road, and there are children that weren’t here 10 years ago. There’s a lot of pedestrians,” Stastny said. “What are we going to do for the protection of the pedestrians and bicyclists and the common good?”

cplacek@dailyherald.com