Plano driver slides off snowy road, crashes into Cortland creek

CORTLAND – A Plano driver was hospitalized to help warm up after the car he was driving veered off a snowy roadway Tuesday afternoon and overturned into a freezing creek in Cortland, authorities said.

Deputies with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s office and firefighters and paramedics with Cortland Fire Department responded to reports of a vehicle in a creek at Somonauk and Gurler Roads at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

The 23-year-old man was driving a blue 2020 Nissan Sentra southbound on Somonauk Road “when he lost control on the snow covered roadway,” police wrote in a news release.

The driver was submerged in the water for about 20 minute before he was able to be extricated from the vehicle, authorities said.

Though he did not report injuries from the crash, the man was taken by paramedics to Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb for “warming purposes,” deputies wrote.

The Nissan was towed from the crash site.

Wet and heavy snow fell throughout the day Tuesday, picking up in the afternoon with another wave in the evening during nighttime commutes. DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Sullivan earlier in the day Tuesday issued a warning for area motorists to use extra caution on the roads, with driving conditions expected to deteriorate throughout the night.

A winter storm warning remains in effect for DeKalb County through 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Snow accumulation is predicted between 6 to 9 inches by the end of Tuesday’s weather event, with more expected Friday.