Executive Summary
- Two Stoughton, Wisconsin residents were killed in a head-on collision on Route 173 in Wadsworth, Illinois.
- Witnesses stated the victims’ vehicle drifted into the path of an oncoming semi-truck carrying a 35,000-pound load.
- A third vehicle was involved in the crash; its driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
- The Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Team is leading the ongoing inquiry.
WADSWORTH, Ill. — Two residents of Stoughton, Wisconsin, were killed Thursday morning in a severe multi-vehicle collision involving a semi-truck in Wadsworth, Illinois, authorities confirmed.
According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, deputies and the Newport Township Fire Protection District responded to the scene on Route 173, west of North Kilbourne Road, at approximately 7:50 a.m. Investigators determined that a 2009 Acura sedan, operated by a 51-year-old man from Stoughton, was traveling eastbound when the vehicle failed to maintain its lane.
Witness statements provided to law enforcement indicate that the Acura drifted into the westbound lane, directly into the path of a Freightliner semi-truck carrying a 35,000-pound load. The semi-truck, driven by a 25-year-old man from Evergreen Park, collided head-on with the sedan. Following the initial impact, an eastbound Honda minivan driven by a 54-year-old woman from Salem, Wisconsin, also struck the Acura.
Paramedics pronounced the Acura’s driver and a 45-year-old female passenger, also from Stoughton, dead at the scene. The driver of the Honda was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The operator of the Freightliner was uninjured and is reportedly cooperating with investigators.
Investigative Outlook
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Team has assumed control of the inquiry to reconstruct the sequence of events and determine the precise cause of the lane deviation. The Lake County Coroner’s Office is currently scheduling autopsies for the deceased. As the investigation remains active, officials have noted the cooperation of the commercial truck driver and have not announced any citations at this stage.
