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Driver killed in Fox Lake crash may have suffered medical episode

An 84-year-old Round Lake Beach man killed Tuesday when his car slammed into the rear of a flatbed trailer in Fox Lake may have suffered a medical episode before the crash, authorities said Wednesday.

Robert E. Ficarra was pronounced dead around 2 p.m. Tuesday at Centegra Hospital-McHenry, where he had been taken after the the crash at routes 12 and 134.

An autopsy Wednesday indicated he died from blunt trauma to his chest and abdomen, but it also found he had a blood clot in an artery supplying oxygen to his heart. That may have accounted for Ficarra's erratic driving and swerving just before the crash, according to a statement from McHenry County Coroner Dr. Anne L. Majewski.

Fox Lake police said Ficarra was driving a north on Route 12 about 1:11 p.m. Tuesday and hit the rear of a truck and trailer stopped for a red light at the Big Hollow Road intersection. Ficarra was alone in his car and the truck driver was not injured, police said. The crash remains under investigation.

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