It probably never will be clear just how fast the Peterbilt tractor-trailer was traveling when it swerved off West Pines Road at Lowell Park Road, hit two trees, then slammed into a house about four miles east of Polo.
The Ogle County Sheriff's Department has opted not to conduct an accident reconstruction, because none of the three people involved in the two-vehicle crash July 8 suffered major injuries.
What is clear is that truck owner James Friedrichs has no plans to repair his unusual cargo.
The 55-year-old Sterling farmer and his passenger, son Jared Friedrichs, 24, had spent the past 20 years building the John Deere competition tractor used in regional tractor pulls.
Worth an estimated $130,000, everything but its frame was a custom part, added to give the machine extra power.
Friedrichs isn't certain whether insurers will consider the tractor a total loss, but he doubts he'll want to start over on the machine.
They don't yet know how much the damage is, "but it'll probably be more than any insurance company wants to give up," he said.
The family never had it valued by insurers, and the estimated cost is loosely based on the cost of new projects from fellow builders in Wisconsin.
The crash was so devastating that everything in the trailer, including the tractor, tools and spare parts, was broken.
"I don't think there was anything I looked at that wasn't wrecked," Friedrichs said. "It was always a work in progress. I don't know if I'm going to do it again."
The speed limit on Pines Road is 55 mph.
Yellow warning signs on Pines Road set an advisory speed limit of 45 mph through the intersection.
According to police, a northbound Oldsmobile driven by Myrtle Filipi, 82, of Arvada, Colo., had stopped at the intersection, then pulled out in front of Friedrichs' semi.
The crash remains under investigation.
"I remember saying that, 'You're not going to do that, you're not, you're not,'" Friedrichs said.
He swerved, and the truck went off the left side of road, striking the home at 7916 W. Pines Road.
The homeowners, John and Margery Engel, weren't home at the time.
Friedrichs was taken by ambulance to KSB Hospital in Dixon, where he received 12 staples above his left eye. His son Jared has a broken knee.
Filipi also was taken to KSB Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
"It's pretty hard to imagine – if you looked at that semi – that a few people walked away from it," Friedrichs said.
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