Illinois
Wisconsin man, woman killed in head-on Wadsworth crash involving semi ID’d: officials
WADSWORTH, Ill. (WLS) — Two people who were killed in a head-on crash involving a semi in the north suburbs on Thursday morning have been identified, officials said on Friday.
The Lake County sheriff’s deputies and the Newport Township Fire Protection District responded to the Route 173 crash, which happened west of North Kilbourne Road in Wadsworth, around 7:50 a.m.
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Witnesses told investigators that the driver of a 2009 Acura sedan, which was traveling eastbound, appeared to be having difficulty staying in his lane and drifted into the path of a Freightliner semi-truck, which was heading westbound.
The two vehicles then collided head-on, officials said. A third vehicle was also hit.
Chopper 7 was over the scene at 9 a.m., capturing the damage.
The sedan’s driver, a man, and a passenger, a woman, were pronounced dead on the scene.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office identified them as 51-year-old Kelly Wooten and 45-year-old Jacklyn Bradley of Stoughton, Wisconsin. Preliminary autopsy results indicate that both Wooten and Bradley died from blunt-force injuries.
The driver of the third vehicle, a 54-year-old Salem, Wisconsin woman, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The crash shut down Route 173 between Kilbourne Road and U.S. 41 in both directions.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Team is investigating.
The video in the player above is from a previous report.
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Illinois
Illinois man’s Memorial Day weekend in Key West was derailed after he went bar hopping in a stolen police car
Imagine your unofficial start to summer taking place in Key West, Florida. You’ve made the trip for the Memorial Day weekend from suburban Chicago, and you’ve got plans to enjoy some of the local establishments.
You have an evening of drinks planned on Saturday when all of a sudden those plans get derailed. Bar hopping was likely on the agenda, but there’s no chance doing so in a stolen police car was ever mentioned.
According to the Key West Police Department, John Mack, 38, of La Grange, Illinois, hopped into and took a patrol car from an officer working off-duty at Dante’s Key West Pool Bar & Restaurant.
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Local 10 reports that the KWPD said Mack had been drinking inside the bar and restaurant before the incident, which surveillance video shows took place just before 6:20 p.m. Police say the footage shows him “walking out of the pool bar with two friends and standing a couple of feet away from the patrol vehicle.”
Mack then, allegedly, opened the door, got inside, and drove off, almost hitting two men. A security guard reportedly got the attention of the officer the patrol car belonged to and as other KWPD officers were responding to the bar, Mack drove the car around the parking lot.
An Illinois man was arrested in Key West after allegedly stealing a police car and taking it for a ride. (Getty)
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Police say they later found him nearby outside of the Boat House Bar & Grill. He had successfully, it would appear, drunkenly bar hopped in the stolen police car. While he claimed to have had only three to six Coronas, according to police, he failed the field sobriety test.
They then allege he resisted arrest, which caused him to sustain cuts from a fence. He refused a breathalyzer and wasn’t in possession of a valid driver’s license at the time of his arrest. He only had an Illinois ID card on him.
A Memorial Day Weekend trip to Key West for an Illinois man included an arrest after he allegedly stole a patrol car. (Getty)
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Mack, who is obviously innocent until proven guilty, was arrested on charges of DUI, burglary, grand theft, grand theft of law enforcement equipment, reckless driving, refusal to submit to DUI testing and resisting arrest without violence.
That is a full Memorial Day weekend no matter how you look at it.
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