(PALATINE) A driver has been cited after he struck a high school cross country runner and severely injured him Thursday morning in northwest suburban Palatine.
The 18-year-old Palatine High student was jogging northbound in the crosswalk on Rohlwing Road at Palatine Road when a southbound 2000 Chevrolet Camaro turned left into his path and struck him about 6:45 a.m., according to Palatine police.
The teen was knocked to the ground and suffered “severe head trauma,” police said.
He was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where his condition had stabilized, police said. His injuries are no longer thought to be life-threatening.
The driver of the Chevy, a 39-year-old Palatine man, was not injured. He was ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk and cited for having an obstructed windshield due to frost.
Witnesses told police the light at Rohlwing Road was green for both the runners and the car, police said.
The teen is a member of the Palatine High cross country team and was running with six other members of the team when he was struck, police said.
Cross country is not in season, and the run was not an official practice, according to Township High School District 211 spokesman Tom Petersen.
“They were getting in a run before school,” Petersen said. “This is an extremely unfortunate accident.”
The school’s cross country coach and athletic director went to the hospital to be with the boy’s family, Petersen said. The six boys that witnessed the crash all met with counselors at the school.
