Numerous crashes slow traffic on suburban tollways
Rescue crews and Illinois State Police responded to numerous crashes on slick suburban tollways Saturday morning, six of them on a single stretch of northbound Interstate 294 in Hinsdale.
The Hinsdale Fire Department were called to the six single-car accidents, all between the Hinsdale Oasis and Ogden Avenue, authorities said.
“We went out there for an accident and before we even got to the first accident, there was another one that we stopped at, and it just kind of went on from there,” said Hinsdale fire Lt. John Giannelli.
Paramedics transported three people — each involved in a separate crash — to Adventist Hinsdale Hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, Giannelli said.
Snow and slippery road conditions appeared to have caused the vehicles to slide into ditches or collide with walls.
“(The crashes) were due to the weather,” Giannelli said. “Nobody really hit each other.”
The first call came in to the Hinsdale Fire Department at 8:03 a.m. By 11:30 a.m., Giannelli said, more roads had been salted and conditions had improved.
Fire Departments from Western Springs and Pleasant View, along with the Illinois State Police, assisted with the crashes.
A two-car crash Saturday morning on Interstate 88 sent three people to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove with nonlife-threatening injuries, authorities said.
A full-size van heading west on I-88 spun out of control just east of Illinois Route 53 and collided with a station wagon at 9:14 a.m., said Dan Mejdrech, a battalion chief with the Downers Grove Fire Department.
Traffic slowed as paramedics treated the three patients before transporting them to the hospital. Tow trucks removed the vehicles and by about 10 a.m. all lanes of traffic were reopened.
The Lombard Fire Department and state police also responded to the crash, Mejdrech said.
State police authorities reported multiple cars in ditches at other toll road locations, including on I-88 near the Fox River Bridge and Interstate 90 near Des Plaines. The crashes mostly were the result of cars slipping on icy pavement and spinning out of control, police said.
Daily Herald staff writer Lenore Adkins contributed to this story.