A 19-year-old man from Schaumburg died early Wednesday after his car slammed into a utility pole and a tree near East Dundee Road and North Denise Drive in Palatine, authorities said. Police and fire crews responded to the crash shortly before 4 a.m., and the driver of the black Nissan Altima was pronounced dead at the scene.
Palatine police told FOX 32 Chicago the vehicle struck the pole and tree near the northeast corner of the intersection. Investigators are withholding the young man's name while his family works to notify additional relatives, and his identity still has not been made public, according to ABC7 Chicago.
A witness told police the Nissan had been stopped in the left-turn lane on eastbound Dundee Road at North Hicks Road before it traveled east into the westbound lanes, though the witness did not see the crash itself, the station's report notes. Police have not said what caused the vehicle to leave the turn lane, and the crash remains under investigation. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office is investigating the cause and manner of death.
Hours-Long Shutdown Snarled Early Commute
The crash forced a lengthy closure of Dundee Road during the overnight investigation. As of 5 a.m., all westbound lanes were shut down between Rand Road and North Hicks Road, while eastbound traffic was squeezed into a single lane, according to NBC Chicago.
By about 6:30 a.m., two eastbound lanes and one westbound lane had reopened, per the same report. All lanes of Dundee Road were back open by about 9 a.m., per ABC7 Chicago, ending the early-morning disruption for drivers in the northwest suburb.
Not the First Deadly Crash on This Stretch
Dundee Road has seen serious wrecks before. In February 2019, 41-year-old Javier Gaspar-Garcia was involved in a crash in the 1500 block of East Dundee Road and died two days later; an autopsy attributed his death to multiple injuries from the collision, and it was ruled an accident, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Wednesday's crash adds to a string of incidents that have repeatedly disrupted the corridor and raised concerns about safety along the busy roadway. Police continue to investigate what led to this latest crash, and no further details on the cause had been released as of Wednesday morning.
