A two-vehicle collision in Hampshire Township Sunday left one man dead and a woman hospitalized in critical condition, Kane County sheriff’s officials said Monday.
Wilbert Parker, a 50-year-old Elgin resident, was found dead within a Chevrolet sedan, authorities said.
Sheriff’s deputies were called to the rollover crash just after 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Walker Road and Route 72 in Hampshire Township.
A preliminary investigation indicates that a 2015 Nissan Pathfinder was traveling north on Walker Road and initially stopped at the intersection’s stop sign, according to the sheriff’s office.
The driver then proceeded forward into the intersection, where he struck the 2008 Chevrolet sedan, which was traveling east on Route 72, forcing it to roll several times and come to rest on a property on the northeast side of the intersection, authorities said.
Parker was a passenger in the Chevrolet. Hampshire and Burlington firefighters worked to free the driver of the sedan for nearly an hour. She was then airlifted to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Rockford in critical condition, authorities said.
The driver of the Nissan SUV was not injured, but taken to a local hospital for evaluation.
Sheriff’s detectives continue to investigate the crash. It’s unclear if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash, sheriff’s officials said.
Sheriff Ron Hain noted Monday there have been several fatal crashes throughout the county over the last few weeks. Three people died after a head-on collision between a motorcycle and a car in far west suburban Big Rock Saturday night.
“Even if we had deputies on every corner of the county, most of these crashes would’ve still occurred,” Hain said in a statement. “I have spoken frequently on the increased lack of responsibility of drivers for the safety of one another, especially since the pandemic. We continue our traffic enforcement campaigns across all 550 square miles of this county, but this is also a societal issue at this point.”
