One person was killed and another hospitalized Friday in a four-vehicle crash that shut down all lanes of the inbound Kennedy Expressway near Harlem Avenue during the morning rush, forcing vehicles to crawl by on the shoulder.
The crash happened at 7:37 a.m., according to the Illinois State Police, but all lanes heading downtown remained closed hours later, and traffic was expected to remain snarled even longer.
At the center of the crash was a Dodge Caravan in the far right lane of the Kennedy that crashed at “a significant rate of speed” into the rear of a Ford pickup truck that was stopped in traffic, according to the state police.
They said that caused the pickup to hit the back of a Chevrolet Cruze, which then crashed into a Ford Explorer, all of which also were stopped because of the heavy rush-hour traffic.
The state police said the Caravan’s driver, who was pronounced dead at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, didn’t brake or even slow down before the collision.
He wasn’t immediately identified.
The 42-year-old man driving the Chevy Cruze suffered what the police said were non-life-threatening injuries and was being treated at Presence Resurrection Medical Center. Chicago Fire Department spokesman Jeffrey Lyle said he was in fair condition.
The crash also shut down the Harlem Avenue on-ramp to the inbound Kennedy, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
