Cheesy crash closes Rt. 20 for hours
By Dave Gathman dgathman@stmedianetwork.com March 19, 2013 8:46AM
Employees of Allen's Towing service in Hampshire unload boxes of cheese products from a semi that turned over near Pingree Grove before dawn Tuesday, stack them on pallets and load them into another truck. Route 20 was closed for almost 10 hours between Route 47 and Reinking Road. | Dave Gathman~Sun-Times Media
Updated: April 21, 2013 6:26AM
PINGREE GROVE — Route 20 was closed for miles for about 11 hours Tuesday as the Kane County Sheriff’s Office handled a mess left by an overturned semitrailer truck full of cheese.
The crash occurred about 4:30 a.m. on Route 20 just east of Marshall Road, where the U.S. route makes a sharp curve heading into Pingree Grove. Route 20 was closed to through traffic between Route 47 at Starks Corners and Reinking Road in Pingree Grove until midafternoon as a crew worked to offload the toppled trailer’s load of cheese products into a second truck. Part of the load had spilled onto the roadway.
Leading the unloading crew, Ted Tegtman of Allen’s Towing said the semi had been traveling from a dairy in Belmont, Wis., to a distribution center in New York State. Tegtman said the truck driver apparently had left I-90 at the Hampshire exit and was planning to drive around downtown Chicago using Route 20, the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway, I-290 and I-294.
Tegtman said the driver was not injured. He said the driver blamed the tipover on the combination of Tuesday morning’s high winds and the curve in the road. Auxiliary police volunteers rerouted Route 20 traffic via Reinking Road/Route 72 and via Route 47/Plank Road.
