Six injured in head-on crash near Pingree Grove
From Staff Reports November 21, 2011 4:26PM
Pingree Grove Fire Protection District personnal work to cut away the roof of a vehicle involved in a head-on collision Monday afternoon on Route 72 near Reinking Road. | Bill O'Neill~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: December 23, 2011 8:14AM
PINGREE GROVE — Six people were injured, two of them apparently very seriously, in a head-on traffic crash on Route 72 east of Reinking Road Monday afternoon.
Kane County Sheriff‘s Lt. Pat Gengler said a Lincoln Town Car carrying five people collided head-on with a Subaru Outback SUV at about 3:15 p.m.
Gengler said the initial investigation shows that the Lincoln was eastbound on Route 72 behind a semi-trailer truck. It began to pass the semi truck, but before it could complete the pass it collided with an oncoming Subaru Outback. After that initial impact, one of the vehicles also may have hit the side of the semi truck, he said.
Gengler provided the following information about those in the vehicles involved in the accident:
Alethea Toney, 24, of Bellwood, the driver of the Lincoln, was taken by helicopter to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Her front-seat passenger, Laura Kopka, 21, of Chicago was taken by helicopter to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. A back-seat passenger, Syreece Banks, 21, of Chicago, initially was taken to Provena Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin but later was taken by helicopter to Advocate Lutheran General. Henry Barnes, 28, of Chicago, a back-seat passenger in the Lincoln, was taken to Sherman Hospital, and another back-seat passenger, Charles Williams, 22, of Chicago was taken to Provena Saint Joseph in Elgin.
Mark Brietzke, 40, of Wonder Lake, the driver of the Subaru, was taken to an Elgin hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, but Gengler did not identify that hospital.
Kevin Barnes, 50, of Marengo, the driver of the semi, was not injured.
Route 72 between Reinking and Big Timber roads was closed until 7:30 p.m. while the investigation took place. Sheriff’s deputies were assisted by the Kane County Office of Emergency Management and the Pingree Grove and Gilberts Police Departments at the scene. Pingree Grove Fire Department was the responding fire agency. The names of the helicopter agencies were not available at press time.
