Des Plaines crash kills 4 people

Chet Donnelly

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21 year old driving too fast in his Mercedes...

Des Plaines crash kills 4 people — 3 from Arlington Heights family - Chicago Tribune

Three members of an Arlington Heights family and a Des Plaines man were killed in a three-car crash in Des Plaines on Thursday evening, police in the northwest suburb said.

Three others were injured, police said.

A Mercedes was driving at a "high rate of speed" west in the 100 block of East Northwest Highway around 8:55 p.m. when it slammed into a Chevrolet Impala that was turning into a parking lot from the eastbound lanes of Northwest Highway, Des Plaines police said.

The Impala was pushed into a Toyota Highlander that was driving east, police said.

The three people in the Impala, all related, were pronounced dead at hospitals. The driver of the Mercedes also was pronounced dead.

Those killed in the crash were identified as Anita Crawford, 50; Kevin Crawford, 52; and Kirsten Crawford, 20, the Cook County medical examiner's office said. All lived in Arlington Heights, according to the office. Piotr Rog, 21, of Des Plaines, also was pronounced dead. A passenger in the Mercedes was taken in critical condition to Lutheran General Hospital. Two people in the Toyota were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

On Friday, Anita Crawford's father, Erwin Schmidt, said he was devastated after police arrived at his Mount Prospect home Thursday night to tell him and his wife, Ursel, of the fatal crash that killed his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter — a student at Harper College.

Schmidt said the couple's other two children, his 15-year-old granddaughter, who is a sophomore at Prospect High School, and his 9-year-old grandson, a student at Windsor Elementary School in Arlington Heights, now are staying with him and his wife.

"We've got support from family and neighbors," Schmidt said.

According to a neighbor, the Crawfords lived along Forrest Avenue in Arlington Heights for at least 15 years.

"They were terrific neighbors," said Carl Bjorndahl, who lives down the block from the Crawford home.

On Friday morning, all was quiet at the Crawford's tidy, red brick ranch on south Forrest Avenue, with a decorative sign on the front door proclaiming, "Believe in Miracles."

Bjorndahl remembered Kevin Crawford shoveling the snow and mowing the lawn for older neighbors.

He said the Crawfords last fall had visited Door County in Wisconsin and while there took a picture of a home that Bjorndahl and his family had once owned for many years. After the vacation, they shared the photo with the Bjorndahls.

"This is such a tragedy," Bjorndahl said.

Northwest Highway was shut down for several hours as the crash was investigated.
 

CMNTMXR57

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My Mother worked with Anita. She is at a loss right now. She just saw her yesterday.

I got the email shortly before reading this...
Looked it up online and a Mercedes was speeding down Northwest Highway and rammed into them. It looks almost head on. Very little left of the impala front end and apparently a fire started in two of the vehicles. Road was closed down for about 8 hours. She was in the class I had with 2 other ladies. One didn’t cut the mustard and was let go a couple months ago and the other is a basket case. I think I’m in shock. She was so young, tall, blonde, very pretty, always immaculately dressed and perfect hair, always happy and smiling with people. And we all saw her yesterday.
 

CMNTMXR57

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It is. A couple years ago, another woman she worked with, her and her husband were riding their Harley out in western Illinois, and not sure if he had a stroke or passed out or something, but ended up running head on into a car coming the other direction. I think he ended up having both legs amputated, she had one amputated and was going through tons of physical therapy just to walk again. One little thing can change life soooo much!

She's also a little freaked out. The Impala SS is what she drives daily. That's the same car involved in this. I did remind her that this Impala was struck, in the passenger front at 100 or more mph and that the passenger cell actually held up quite nicely. What killed them (if not being ejected from the car watching that guy spray painting the road), was the blunt force trauma. Necks snapping, etc... Not being crushed or anything.
 

BigJohnson

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It is. A couple years ago, another woman she worked with, her and her husband were riding their Harley out in western Illinois, and not sure if he had a stroke or passed out or something, but ended up running head on into a car coming the other direction. I think he ended up having both legs amputated, she had one amputated and was going through tons of physical therapy just to walk again. One little thing can change life soooo much!

She's also a little freaked out. The Impala SS is what she drives daily. That's the same car involved in this. I did remind her that this Impala was struck, in the passenger front at 100 or more mph and that the passenger cell actually held up quite nicely. What killed them (if not being ejected from the car watching that guy spray painting the road), was the blunt force trauma. Necks snapping, etc... Not being crushed or anything.

Did the motor cycle accident happen in galena? Because friends of mine were hit head on by a Harley with a husband and wife on it there a couple years ago
 

CMNTMXR57

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I was going to say, on WLS's coverage, WGN's coverage, Daily Herald's article, all are saying it was 100mph. Give or take some level of error tolerance. Watching the second videos posted above, you can see where both cars came to rest in relation to the YMCA. I think they (The Crawfords) pulling into the YMCA there. Look it up on Google maps. So judging by how far they ended up being away from the YMCA entrance, it was one hell of an impact, that would've taken some serious momentum to get them that far down...

An early email from my Mother said that the son was just coming back from getting another belt in Karate...
 

Chester Copperpot

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On Friday, Anita Crawford's father, Erwin Schmidt, said he was devastated after police arrived at his Mount Prospect home Thursday night to tell him and his wife, Ursel, of the fatal crash that killed his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter

I normally don't post in threads like this but fuck that's heavy... And now two kids without mom, dad, or sis. Fuck.
 

CMNTMXR57

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Sifting through the wreckage and documenting everything last night, I don't think that has been addressed yet. It has to be located, then removed, then sent somewhere (be it a MB dealer or some other forensic data extraction place), for that info to be obtained. Something that's not happening at ~9pm on the side of NW Highway when you're extracating people and cleaning up the debris field.

It'll be something the insurance company/companies sort through as they and the lawyers settle the dust. The speed claims are merely from witnesses (one in the Daily Herald said that he estimated 60 - 70 but heard the MB accelerating...), and the degree of initial evidence like how far away the cars were from point of impact, debris field, skidmarks (if any), etc...

IF it was doing 35 - 40mph like the zone is, two cars wouldn't be 100ft down the road. So I'm gonna go with the fact that Piotr was clearly exceeded that posted speed limit to some significant degree.
 

10thSVT_03

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Feb 28, 2009
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Sifting through the wreckage and documenting everything last night, I don't think that has been addressed yet. It has to be located, then removed, then sent somewhere (be it a MB dealer or some other forensic data extraction place), for that info to be obtained. Something that's not happening at ~9pm on the side of NW Highway when you're extracating people and cleaning up the debris field.

It'll be something the insurance company/companies sort through as they and the lawyers settle the dust. The speed claims are merely from witnesses (one in the Daily Herald said that he estimated 60 - 70 but heard the MB accelerating...), and the degree of initial evidence like how far away the cars were from point of impact, debris field, skidmarks (if any), etc...

IF it was doing 35 - 40mph like the zone is, two cars wouldn't be 100ft down the road. So I'm gonna go with the fact that Piotr was clearly exceeded that posted speed limit to some significant degree.
Insurance companies have no involvement in that part any longer. It will go to a police IT Forensics person to extract the data. It used to take a subpoena or act of congress to get those boxes released. Legislation was passed and now they don't have to wait. The hangup used to be "it's private property owned by the vehicles owner". Case was won and now the crowbar comes out and the box is removed. Once the reconstruction measurements are there you tell vehicle speed fairly accurately. Measurements in the debris field etc. give enough data.
 
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