Man dies after vehicle speeds past 'Road Closed' sign in Winnetka

A man died in a north suburban crash early Thursday after driving his vehicle into a large sewer section.

Fire crews and police officers in Winnetka responded about 1:40 a.m. to Tower Road just east of Forestway Drive for the crash, Winnetka police said in a statement.

A preliminary investigation found the driver — identified as 53-year-old Douglas Pendry — was speeding when his vehicle crashed into the sewer section staged at a construction site on Tower Road, behind a barricade with a “Road Closed” sign, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Police said “there were no signs of evasive maneuvers or slowing” before the crash.

Pendry, of the 1600 block of Forest Avenue in Wilmette, was taken to Evanston Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour after the crash, the medical examiner’s office said.

An autopsy Friday was inconclusive pending further studies, the medical examiner’s office said.