Crime & Safety

Icy Roads Contribute to 10 Accidents in Two Hours in LITH

"People were still driving like it was 70 and sunny out there," said Sgt. Ted Ziarkowski of the Lake in the Hills Police Department.

The first day of December brought a dusting of snow and a much less-pleasant winter tradition: weather-related crashes.

Between 8 and 10 a.m., Lake in the Hills Police officers responded to 10 accidents involving 24 different vehicles, said Sgt. Ted Ziarkowski of the Lake in the Hills Police Department. Motorists not driving safely for conditions when hitting the roadways caused 80 percent of those crashes, he said.

"Speed, not giving themselves enough distance and absolutely the weather (were factors in the crashes)," Ziarkowsi said. "People were still driving like it was 70 and sunny out there."

Find out what's happening in Algonquin-Lake In The Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While there was not a significant amount of snow that fell Wednesday, winds along with the low temperatures turned the roadways slick with 40-foot stretches of black ice at some of Lake in the Hills most-traveled intersections, Ziarkowski said. 

Police responded to three separate accidents within 20 minutes at one such intersection: Algonquin and Pyott roads, Ziarkowski said.

Find out what's happening in Algonquin-Lake In The Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The pile up of accidents forced the police to put a marked community service vehicle out near the intersection—on Algonquin Road north of Pyott Road--to close the lane until the county highway department could arrive to clear the roadway, Ziarkowski said.

The intersection of Rakow and Pyott roads was not much better. Four separate crashes occurred within an hour and two of those accidents resulted in injuries.

Police are still searching for the suspect that caused one of those accidents -- a three-vehicle crash that sent two to the hospital.

Around 10 a.m., the suspect vehicle was heading east on Rakow Road, approaching Pyott Road, when it collided with a vehicle that was stopped at the intersection, waiting to make a left turn. That vehicle in turn collided with the vehicle in front of it, which was first in line.

The vehicle that caused the accident fled the scene, heading south on Pyott Road, Ziarkowski said.

"That vehicle is still missing," he said.

Miguel Plascenia-Chavez, 25, of Chicago, and Margarita Cortez-Parra, 28, of Crystal Lake were in the vehicle that was first in line to turn and were both taken to seperate hospitals for injuries sustained during the accident.

Plascenia-Chavez was taken to Woodstock Memorial Hospital Cortez-Parra was taken to Northern Illinois Medical Center and updates on their conditions were not immediately available.

Lake in the Hills Patch will update with more information if it does become available.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.