Illinois State Police and firefighters and paramedics from Alsip responded about 5:20 a.m. Thursday, May 13, 2021 to a report that a vehicle crashed into a tollway maintenance truck in the southbound lanes of I-294 at Mile Marker 13.8..
An I-294 crash left 1 dead and 1 hurt after a driver crashed into a maintenance truck near Buckley Road, Illinois State Police say. https://t.co/apOTmwdfK8
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) May 13, 2021
Driver killed in fiery crash involving maintenance truck on I-294 https://t.co/yVlX5uXnQL
— ChicagoMediaX (@chicagomediaX) May 13, 2021
The maintenance truck was carrying a tank of weed chemicals when it was hit. The tollway worker and the first Illinois State Police trooper on the scene attempted to get the crash victim out of the car as it started on fire. The tollway worker was injured, but worked with the ISP trooper to extinguish the fire with a fire extinguisher, helped attempt to remove the worker from the wrecked vehicle, and updated the Illinois State Police dispatcher with details about the situation at the crash scene.
The fire extinguisher knocked back the flames, but the flames flared up again. The trooper and tollway worker were unable to get the trapped man out of his vehicle, and he died at the scene.
Alsip firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire. The crash damage to the tollway truck caused a weed chemical leak on the road, which also involved a minor hazmat incident.
A Crash Reconstruction Officer (CRO) responded to the scene for an extended crash investigation. Traffic slowed to a stop past I-55 even as late as 8:45 a.m. The center and far right lanes (lanes 2,3 and 4) were shut down for the crash investigation.
The information in this article is an early report published before any summary information was confirmed or released by police or fire authorities.
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