One injured in accident on Higgins Road in East Dundee

One man was injured early Thursday morning after a garbage truck slammed into the rear-end of a disabled semi-trailer about 5 a.m. in East Dundee, police officials said.

The accident on Higgins Road near Rock Road shut down the westbound lanes of Higgins for about two hours, said Sgt. Larry Seyller of the East Dundee Police Department.

Seyller said the semi had turned onto westbound Higgins from Rock Road when the trailer of the rig became detached.

The semi driver pulled over and called a towing company to come out and re-attach the trailer, Seyller said, and put out flags to warn other drivers of the disabled vehicle.

However, Seyller said the garbage truck driver didn't see the flags and hit the trailer from behind with the garbage truck fork lifts extended.

The driver of the garbage truck suffered nonlife-threatening injuries in the accident and was taken to Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Seyller said.

The fork of the garbage truck became wedged inside the trailer, Seyller said, causing a longer delay than normal to clean up.

"The trucks had to be pried apart," Seyller said. "But, those forks probably saved the life of the garbage truck driver."

Eastbound Higgins remained open while the scene was cleaned up.