A child was left in critical condition Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a vehicle near 20th Street and Honore Avenue in North Chicago, according to fire officials. The crash happened around 3:30 p.m., and the child was taken to a nearby hospital, fire officials said.
Fire officials initially requested a medical helicopter to transport the child, but that request was later canceled, according to ABC7 Chicago. It was not immediately clear why the helicopter was called off in favor of ground transport, though the change suggests responders determined the child could be safely and swiftly moved by ambulance instead. ABC7 Chicago reports it is still working to learn how the crash unfolded.
Details remain scarce. It is not yet known whether the child was in a marked crosswalk, what the driver's speed was, or whether the Lake County Major Crash Assistance Team was activated to investigate, though that specialized unit is typically the one called in for severe or critical crashes in the county. According to the Village of Lindenhurst, MCAT deploys crash reconstruction officers and aerial drone mapping to document scene evidence in serious collisions.
What Illinois Law Requires Near Children
Illinois law places a heightened burden on drivers when children are present. Under Section 11-1003.1 of the Illinois Vehicle Code, every driver must exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian and must give proper warning and take extra precaution upon observing a child on or near a roadway, according to the Illinois General Assembly. Separately, Section 11-1002 of the state's vehicle code requires motorists to stop and yield to pedestrians crossing at marked or unmarked crosswalks where no traffic signal is present, a standard relevant to residential intersections like the one where Wednesday's crash occurred.
A Wider Pattern in Lake County
Wednesday's crash lands amid a documented rise in pedestrian danger across the region. Pedestrian fatalities in the six-county Chicago metro area, which includes Lake County, climbed 6.7% in 2024 to 144 deaths, up from 135 the year before, per data reported by Abels & Annes. Statewide, pedestrian traffic fatalities rose 9.5% in 2024 to 219 deaths even as overall fatal motor vehicle collisions in Illinois fell 3.5%, the same report notes.
Vehicle design has also been flagged as a factor in how survivable these crashes are for pedestrians. Research cited by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that passenger vehicles with hood heights above 40 inches are roughly 45% more likely to cause pedestrian fatalities than vehicles with shorter front ends. Nationally, the same organization's 2024 data shows pedestrians accounted for 17% of all child motor vehicle crash fatalities, even though overall child pedestrian deaths have fallen 92% since 1975.
North Chicago has seen other severe crashes in recent months. In May, North Chicago police and Lake County MCAT investigators responded to a critical pedestrian hit-and-run at Buckley Road and Green Bay Road that left a 26-year-old woman severely injured, as Hoodline reported at the time. The city is also part of the Northern Lakeshore Trail Connectivity Plan, an inter-agency effort aimed at improving pedestrian infrastructure and safe walking corridors for children across northern Lake County, according to the City of North Chicago.
The nearest facility equipped for the most serious pediatric trauma cases is Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Lake County's only Level 1 Trauma Center with a dedicated pediatric emergency department. It was not confirmed whether the injured child was taken there. No further details about the driver, the vehicle involved, or the circumstances of the crash have been released, and Hoodline will update this story as more information becomes available.
