Two people died and 16 others sustained injuries after a stolen car speeding the wrong way caused a horrific car accident involving seven other vehicles on Chicago’s South Side on Wednesday night.
The eight-car pileup happened at around 5 pm at East 87th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue.
According to Larry Merritt, the Chicago Fire Department’s spokesperson, at least 10 ambulances arrived to help paramedics deal with the injured people at the crash scene.
Merritt said that authorities pronounced the two people who died in the crash dead at the scene, adding that the accident involved an extremely high-speed. One of the cars in the collision burst into flames when it crashed and disintegrated, while another was upside down.
Merritt said that this was the worst accident he had encountered out of all the accident scenes he had seen in his career.
While speaking to reporters on Wednesday night, David Brown, the Chicago Police Superintendent, said the car that had caused the accident was a black Dodge Charger, racing on the wrong side of the road before crashing into other vehicles and eventually bursting into a ball of fire.
According to Brown, the owner of the Dodge Charger had reported it stolen earlier that day in Markham. The police found a gun in the back of the car, and its two occupants died in the fire.
The pile of vehicles was still at the intersection during Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown’s address to reporters. There was a pile of six vehicles on top of each other, with one car flipped and two more badly damaged vehicles nearby.
Brown called on people to drive slower, saying that the senseless tragedy could have been avoided by slowing down.
The police have not yet identified the two people who perished in the crash.
Children are among the injured people, with seven youngsters and nine adults being rushed to the hospital.
On Thursday morning, police said the injuries of people involved in the crash ranged from fractured wrists to body pain, with most of the injured in good condition.
All the injured were in vehicles except a 54-year-old man, who was injured while on a sidewalk and suffered a dislocated kneecap.
Brown did not disclose why the Dodge charger was speeding or its speed, but he said the police had launched an investigation into the tragic incident, which would lead to more answers.
The Police Superintendent urged people to avoid speeding, adding that it was the leading cause of over 100 fatalities caused by traffic accidents this year.
Mayor Lightfoot said that speeding had become a huge problem in the city and the best way to deal with the situation was for the police to get more aggressive, arrest people and lock them up. She fears for other pedestrians and road users who could potentially lose their lives because of speeding.
The Cook County Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy on the two passengers of the Dodge Charger to identify them.
