2 killed, 4 injured in I-57 crash near Manteno

Two Florida residents were killed and four other people were injured in a multi-vehicle crash Wednesday afternoon on Interstate 57 in Kankakee County.

At 1:13 p.m., a southbound 2016 Freightliner semi truck and a 2017 Toyota car traveling behind it were slowing to a stop in a construction zone on I-57 near mile marker 321 near Manteno, according to Illinois State Police. A 2010 International semi failed to slow down and smashed into the back of the car, causing it to collide with the other semi.

The Toyota’s front-seat passenger, 26-year-old Jake H. Hemrick of Tampa, Florida, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The back-seat passenger, 24-year-old Michelle M. Crowe from Boca Raton, Florida, was flown to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she died at 9:23 p.m., police said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office said she lived in Delaware.

The driver, a 38-year-old Tampa woman, was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee with serious, life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the International semi, a 68-year-old man from Clarendon Hills, was taken to Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee, where he was treated and released, police said. He was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

The driver of the Freightliner semi, a 48-year-old man from Roseland, Louisiana, was taken to St. Mary’s with injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening, police said.