One person dead, another seriously injured after crash on Route 72 in northwest Kane County

One person was killed, another seriously injured after a two-car rollover crash about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3, in Hampshire Township.

According to a news release from Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain’s office, a preliminary investigation found that a 2015 Nissan Pathfinder initially stopped at a stop sign at the intersection of Walker Road and Route 72. The driver then entered the intersection, where he hit a 2008 Chevrolet sedan that was traveling east on Route 72, causing it to roll over several times before stopping northeast of the intersection.

The passenger of the sedan, Wilbert Parker, 50, of Elgin, was found dead in the car, while the driver, who had to be extricated, was flown to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Rockford in critical condition.

It took Hampshire and Burlington fire departments almost one hour to extricate the driver, according to the release.

The driver of the Nissan Pathfinder was uninjured, but taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

Kane County Sheriff’s Detectives continue to investigate the crash. It is unknown if drugs or alcohol are a factor at this time.

This is the third fatal car crash in Kane County since Thursday, when two South Elgin High School students were killed less than a mile from the school on Aug. 31, followed by a head-on crash near Big Rock on Saturday, Sept. 2, that killed three people.

Hain said in the release that it has been an atypical last few weeks with several fatal crashes throughout Kane County.

He said that they have all been in varying locations and the cause has been for different reasons, but mostly because of lack of awareness or attention to the drivers’ surroundings.

“Even if we had deputies on every corner of the county, most of these crashes would’ve still occurred,” he said in the release. “I have spoken frequently on the increased lack of responsibility of drivers for the safety of one another, especially since the pandemic. We continue our traffic enforcement campaigns across all 550 square miles of this county, but this is also a societal issue at this point.”