1 killed, 1 injured in high-speed car crash near Bucktown: police

A speeding car rammed into a cement pole early Saturday on the Northwest Side, leaving its driver dead and a passenger hospitalized.

At 1:14 a.m., a 39-year-old man was driving a black sedan “at a high rate of speed” northbound in the 1900 block of North Ashland, Chicago police said. The car slammed into a cement pole near the Bucktown neighborhood’s northeast corner.

The 39-year-old, Leonardo Mendez, was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center and died at 1:51 a.m. Saturday, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the West Elsdon neighborhood.

Mendez died of multiple injuries as a result of hitting the pole, according to a Saturday autopsy from the medical examiner’s office.

His passenger, a 27-year-old man, was brought to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said. His condition was stabilized there.

No one else was hurt in the crash, police said. The Chicago Police Department’s Major Accidents Unit was investigating.