Stevenson lanes reopen after fatal crash involving IDOT truck

A man was killed in a three-vehicle crash involving an Illinois Department of Transportation truck Monday morning on the Stevenson Expressway near the Southwest Side Archer Heights neighborhood.

At 2:04 a.m., a 2016 Hyundai veered into the right shoulder of the southbound I-55 near the Pulaski Road exit, according to a spokesman for the Illinois State Police.

It rear-ended an IDOT utility truck assisting a taxi that was pulled over in front, police said. As a result, the truck also bumped into the taxi.

The driver of the Hyundai, identified as 33-year-old Jeffery S. Bedinfield of Chicago, became trapped in the car and had to be extricated, state police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy Tuesday found Bedinfield, who lived on the Southwest Side, died of multiple blunt-force injuries from the crash, according to the medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled an accident.

The drivers of the IDOT truck and the taxi were outside their vehicles at the time of the crash and were not injured, police said.

All southbound I-55 lanes were shut down for nearly four hours as authorities investigated, according to police. Two lanes were reopened about 5:50 a.m., while the remaining lanes were opened by 6:47 a.m.

Police said it was not known whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation.