Des Plaines woman killed in parking garage accident

A 76-year-old Des Plaines woman was killed after being run over by a minivan inside a Northwest Community Hospital parking garage late Wednesday morning, according to police.

Emergency crews responded to multiple 911 calls at about 11 a.m. and found the woman trapped under the vehicle on the first floor of the hospital's Center for Specialty Medicine parking garage, police said.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office identified the woman as Ramona Zentefis, 76, of Des Plaines.

Zentefis was rushed to the hospital's emergency room after being freed from the vehicle, but doctors were unable to save her, according to authorities.

The woman was walking across a painted crosswalk on the first level of the garage when a 2010 Chrysler Town and County minivan driven by a 59-year-old Mount Prospect woman struck her, according to police. The driver had just reached the top of the ramp to the first level when the minivan collided with the pedestrian, who was walking into the hospital, said Arlington Heights Police Cmdr. William Newman.

“It was a very unfortunate incident,” said Capt. Nicholas Pecora. “From the perspective that we saw, she was going up slower than normal speed and for some reason or another didn't yield to the pedestrian.”

Police said the accident was recorded on a surveillance camera and remains under investigation.

Although there was a pedestrian yield sign on a structural support beam above the painted crosswalk, the garage is private property and is not governed by traffic laws, Pecora said.

It took emergency crews 20 minutes to free the victim from under the vehicle after using air bags and a tow truck to raise the van, according to the fire department.

No citations have been issued and charges are not likely, he added.

Police said Zentefis received multiple traumatic injuries in the collision. An autopsy is scheduled for this morning.