Early Friday morning saw chaos unfold on the Dan Ryan Expressway with two separate crashes leaving five people injured, including law enforcement officers. The back-to-back incidents rattled the southbound lanes near 95th Street, starting with an Illinois State Police (ISP) squad car colliding with a civilian vehicle at approximately 2:10 a.m. Both vehicles ended up disabled in the lanes.
Response units arrived instantly at the first crash site. An additional ISP squad car along with a Chicago police squad car hustled to quickly secure the area. In response to this initial incident, at least one trooper and a passenger from the civilian vehicle were ushered to a hospital with injuries described as non-life threatening, according to Chicago Tribune.
The second incident happened moments later when another motorist failed to heed the site’s warning lights before crashing into a Chicago police squad car, catapulting it against a stationary ISP vehicle. Fortunately, both vehicles were unoccupied, sparing officers from potential harm. The aftermath involved two Chicago police officers and one ISP trooper who were later taken to Christ Hospital for minor injuries, as reported by CBS Chicago. Additionally, two civilians were transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center — also with minor wounds.
Traffic was eventually diverted off 95th Street as lanes were shut down to manage the series of events. Despite the severity of the crashes, all lanes have since been reopened, and traffic flow on the expressway resumed without noticeable delays.
