Police: Driver's leg cramp causes fatal Des Plaines crash

A woman was killed in a traffic crash Monday afternoon in northwest suburban Des Plaines, an accident caused when the driver suffered a leg cramp.

A 71-year-old woman was driving northbound at 3:50 p.m. near the 600 block of South River Road in Des Plaines when her leg cramped up, Des Plaines police said in a statement. She swerved her vehicle off the road, and it struck a building at 659 S. River Rd. A map shows that address as an apartment building.

Responding officers pulled a 73-year-old passenger from the vehicle, and a “good Samaritan” helped administer CPR, police said.

Eva C. Lucero of the 1600 block of Forrest in Highland Park was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where she was pronounced dead about 35 minutes later, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

An autopsy Tuesday found Lucero died of multiple injuries from the crash and ruled her death an accident, the medical examiner’s office said.

Paramedics also took the driver and a back-seat passenger to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.