Waterman woman, 77, succumbs to injuries after rollover crash

A Waterman woman succumbed to her injuries after a car that she was driving crashed and rolled over multiple times early Tuesday west of Hinckley, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

Authorities identified the woman as Kayla Ford, 77. She died at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford on Tuesday after she’d been airlifted by a Life Flight helicopter due to the severity of her injuries.

Paramedics from the Hinckley Fire Protection District found Ford, the driver and only occupant of a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze, trapped in her car about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

They freed her from the car and took her to Northwestern Medicine Valley West Hospital in Sandwich before she was flown to Rockford.

Ford was not wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash, authorities said.

She was driving east on Route 30, east of Rimsnider Road in southern DeKalb County, when the car went off the road to the north at 1:28 a.m. Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office.

The car hit a ditch and nearby embankment, then overturned multiple times.

The crash remains under investigation by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and Winnebago County Coroner’s Office.

DeKalb County Coroner Linda Besler said her office was not taking part in the investigation because Ford died while outside DeKalb County.

It’s the second fatal car crash authorities reported in less than a week. A DeKalb man was killed after his car crashed into a tree in Kingston on March 28. The crash was unrelated.