A motorcyclist died Wednesday afternoon after a crash on the Kennedy Expressway near downtown Chicago, shutting down multiple lanes of southbound Interstate 90 and a key feeder ramp just as rush hour traffic began building. The rider was taken to an area hospital with injuries and later pronounced dead, according to Illinois State Police.
Troopers responded to the crash just before 3 p.m. Wednesday on southbound I-90 at Ohio Street, according to CBS Chicago. The crash forced the closure of multiple lanes on I-90 as well as the northbound Ohio Street feeder ramp during the afternoon rush hour. The closures were later lifted. State police have not said what led up to the crash, and the investigation remains ongoing.
The stretch of highway where the crash occurred is one of the busiest in the region. The Kennedy Expressway carries between 275,000 and 400,000 vehicles a day between downtown Chicago and O'Hare International Airport, per the Illinois Department of Transportation.
A Corridor Fresh Off a $169 Million Overhaul
The crash comes roughly a year after the Illinois Department of Transportation wrapped up a major rehabilitation of this same stretch of highway. The agency completed a three-year, $169 million rebuild of the Kennedy Expressway between the Edens Expressway junction and Ohio Street in October 2025. The work was funded under Governor JB Pritzker's Rebuild Illinois capital initiative.
Motorcycle Risks
The fatal crash arrives even as Illinois has seen broad improvement in highway safety. Provisional data shows statewide road fatalities fell to 1,172 in 2025, a six-year low, and continued declining by more than 20% through the middle of 2026, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. That marks four consecutive years of decline after fatalities peaked at 1,341 in 2021.
Motorcyclists, however, have not shared in that progress. Motorcycles make up under 3% of registered vehicles in Illinois but account for 12% to 15% of all fatal crashes statewide, according to Spiros Law.
Illinois' Helmet Law Gap
Illinois remains one of only three states nationwide, along with Iowa and New Hampshire, without a universal motorcycle helmet law requiring riders of any age to wear head protection, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The state's mandatory helmet statute was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1969, and subsequent efforts to reinstate one have failed in the legislature. State law does require motorcycle operators and passengers to wear protective eye gear, such as goggles, safety glasses, or a transparent shield, unless the motorcycle has an approved windscreen, under Section 11-1404 of the Illinois Vehicle Code.
Illinois State Police have not released further details on the circumstances of the crash, and the investigation continues.
