Man dies after car slams into tree in Riverside

A man was killed in a crash Thursday in west suburban Riverside.

Brandon Cerero, 20, was riding in the back seat of a 1998 Lexus heading west in the 100 block of East Burlington Street in Riverside when the driver lost control and the car slammed into a tree shortly after midnight, according to Riverside police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Responding officers arrived to find the car “wrapped around” the tree and a second car, a 1999 Jaguar, stopped nearby, police said.

Paramedics tried to treat Cerero, but he was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, authorities said. He lived in Chicago.

An autopsy Thursday found he died of multiple injuries from the crash and his death was ruled an accident, the medical examiner’s office said.

Several other people suffered minor injuries but declined medical treatment, according to Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel. There were a total of three people in the Lexus and four in the Jaguar.

The Jaguar had no obvious signs of damage and investigators are still trying to determine what role, if any, it played in the crash, according to police.

The 100 block of Burlington was closed for more than six hours while investigators processed the scene for evidence. The crash remains under investigation by Riverside police and the West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force’s Major Crash Unit.