Coroner identifies man who died in Harvard crash

The McHenry County Coroner’s Office has identified the person who died in a car crash near Harvard Saturday afternoon.

Douglas Fowler, 57, of Capron, in Boone County, was killed in the crash, and preliminary results of an autopsy performed Tuesday found Fowler’s cause of death as blunt-force injuries to the head and body, according to a news release Wednesday from the coroner’s office.

The coroner’s office was contacted by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office about 5:30 p.m. Saturday to investigate the single-car crash in the 24700 block of Route 173 near Harvard, according to the release.

Toxicology is pending, according to the release.

The Harvard Fire Protection District responded to the scene about 3 p.m. Saturday for a reported car crash.

First responders arrived to a “single vehicle with heavy damage, overturned about 75 feet off the roadway in a field,” Harvard Fire Protection District Public Information Officer Alex Vucha said in a news release. Paramedics found an adult male driver still inside the vehicle, a Corvette. The man, the sole occupant of the car, suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, Vucha said.

The sheriff’s office said Monday the driver was passing other cars on the road at high speeds before the crash and it’s believed speed and reckless driving were factors in the crash.