20-year-old woman killed in Melrose Park crash

A 20-year-old Addison woman died after a traffic crash Wednesday morning in west suburban Melrose Park, authorities said.

Just before 4 a.m., the driver of a 1998 Chevrolet Astro passenger van disobeyed a red traffic light on Mannheim Road and drove into the intersection with Lake Street, according to Melrose Park police. The van struck a 2007 Honda Civic and then a 2006 Chevrolet Impala.

Cindy Baez-Gutierrez, of the 100 block of Lincoln Avenue in Addison, was driving the Impala and was struck by the van in her driver’s side door, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. Emergency responders had to extricate the driver of the van and Baez-Gutierrez from their vehicles.

Baez-Gutierrez was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where she died at 4:51 a.m., authorities said. An autopsy on Thursday found she died of multiple injuries suffered in the crash.

The driver of the van was also taken to Loyola, police said. The 30-year-old driver of the Civic was not injured.

The driver of the van was under investigation, police said.