5 kids among 6 hospitalized in Antioch golf cart crash

A golf cart crash Thursday in northwest suburban Antioch injured six people, two of them seriously.

Deputies were called about 7:45 p.m. to the area of North Drexel Boulevard and Lotus Avenue in unincorporated Antioch for reports of a traffic crash involving a golf cart, the Lake County sheriff’s office said.

A preliminary investigation found a 17-year-old from Lake Barrington was northbound on Drexel in a custom golf cart when he made a sharp turn, causing it to roll, the sheriff’s office said.

The cart was meant to hold six passengers, and was over-capacity with seven people in it, the sheriff’s office said. One person was standing on the back-bumper area.

All of the occupants were ejected from the golf cart, the sheriff’s office said. A boy, 11, four girls ages 13 to 16 and a 26-year-old man were taken to Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with non-life threatening injuries. Two of them sustained serious injuries.

Paramedics examined the driver at the scene and he wasn’t taken to a hospital, the sheriff’s office said.

The crash is under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Unit.

“While it can be fun and exciting to ride in golf carts or other non-traditional vehicles, it can also be extremely dangerous,” Sheriff John Idleburg said in a statement. “It is very fortunate this crash did not result in the tragic loss of life.”