Man dies months after crashing SUV into tree in Wauconda Township

A north suburban man died Sunday afternoon, more than four months after he was critically injured in a crash in Wauconda.

Robert Bernard, 51, was driving his 2018 Subaru WRX north on Brown Road about 11 p.m. on May 31 when it went off the road and hit a tree near the intersection with Ivanhoe Road in Wauconda Township, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The sheriff’s office said alcohol was a factor in the crash.

The SUV sustained extensive damage and Bernard was unconscious and trapped inside when police arrived, authorities said. He was taken to Condell Medical Center in Libertyville in critical condition.

Bernard, who lived in Island Lake, was pronounced dead at 12:52 p.m. Sunday at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, a rehabilitation hospital in Chicago, the medical examiner’s office said. An autopsy found he died from complications of multiple injuries he suffered in the crash and his death was ruled an accident.