A pedestrian was struck and killed in the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway near 87th Street in Chicago late Wednesday night, and what state police first described as a hit-and-run turned out to be something else entirely. The vehicle involved never left the scene, according to Illinois State Police, which walked back its own initial account within hours of the crash.
Troopers said the pedestrian was struck at about 11:21 p.m. Wednesday and was taken to a hospital, where the victim was later pronounced dead, according to ABC7 Chicago. Illinois State Police initially reported the crash as a hit-and-run, but the outlet later reported that the car had in fact remained at the scene, meaning the driver did not flee as first stated. The discrepancy between the two accounts has not been further explained.
State police shut down all southbound traffic on the Dan Ryan and diverted it off at 87th Street while troopers investigated the scene, according to CBS News Chicago. All lanes were fully reopened by Thursday morning, the station reported.
Why State Troopers, Not Chicago Police, Run the Investigation
Illinois State Police Troop 3, based in Des Plaines, holds primary jurisdiction over state highways and interstate corridors throughout Cook County, including the Dan Ryan — which is why troopers rather than Chicago police are leading the investigation, as Hoodline has previously reported. It remains unclear why the pedestrian was on foot along the interstate so late at night, and whether the person had gotten out of a broken-down vehicle or for some other reason. No citations or charges tied to the crash have been reported.
Walking on a controlled-access highway like the Dan Ryan is itself against the law. Under Section 625 ILCS 5/11-711 of the Illinois Vehicle Code, the Illinois Department of Transportation has explicit statutory authority to bar pedestrians, non-motorized vehicles, and slow-moving traffic from entering interstates, according to FindLaw.
A Second Fatal Dan Ryan Pedestrian Crash in Under a Week
This marks the second pedestrian death on the Dan Ryan in less than a week. Just six days earlier, on August 28, a man was struck and killed in the northbound lanes near 47th Street after getting out of a vehicle overnight — a case Hoodline previously covered as a suspected hit-and-run. The corridor has seen this kind of tragedy before: in October 2024, state troopers investigated a fatal collision near 83rd Street after a pedestrian walking in the travel lanes was struck by a sedan.
The back-to-back deaths fit into a troubling statewide pattern. Illinois Department of Transportation data show 219 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes across the state in 2024, a 9.5% jump from 200 deaths in 2023, even as total fatal motor vehicle collisions fell to their lowest level since 2020, according to the Daily Herald. In the six-county Chicago region specifically, pedestrian fatalities climbed to 144 in 2024, up 6.7% from 135 the year before, per the P&N Law Blog.
Pedestrian Deaths Keep Climbing Even as Other Crashes Decline
Pedestrian fatalities made up 13.7% of all motor vehicle-related deaths in Illinois in 2024, according to state traffic safety records cited by Spiros Law. Provisional 2025 figures show the trend has not reversed, with pedestrian deaths remaining elevated at 218 statewide, up from 195 in 2022, even as overall crash deaths have declined an average of 3.4% annually between 2021 and 2025.
Part of the explanation may lie in what's on the road. Research reviewed by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, cited by the same P&N Law Blog analysis, found that larger vehicles with higher hood heights — SUVs and pickup trucks among them — are significantly more likely to inflict fatal injuries when they strike pedestrians compared to smaller sedans. For now, the exact circumstances that put Wednesday night's victim on the Dan Ryan's pavement remain unknown, and whether any citations will follow is still an open question.
