If you would like to see a number of photographs from last Wednesday's wreck on Greenwood Road that involved two cars and a McHenry County Sheriff's Department squad car, go to www.mchenrycountyblog.com
Cal Skinner got 173 photos and picked the best of them. You'll see that it wasn't just a little "tap" from the Mitsubishi that pushed a Pontiac Grand Am in front of the squad car. Look at the back end of the Grand Am. It's caved in - big-time. And then the Mitsubishi ran off the west side of the road and hit a telephone pole - hard. The Grand Am stayed in the roadway, but it must have been a wild ride.
There are scrapes on the left side of the patrol car that must be from the front of the Grand Am. Deputy Kyle Oligney must have swerved to the right when he saw the Grand Am coming across the road at him. He drove off onto the shoulder and then went almost straight ahead, missing a property owner's sign but nailing a big tree.
There is probably a black box in the squad car that will provide a record of the speed of the squad car. If not, Deputy Oligney probably has a good idea of how fast he was going. Eventually, there ought to be a report within MCSD with Deputy Oligney's recollection of the crash as it developed in front of him.
The photos seem to answer one question in my mind, and that was whether a northbound car had slowed or stopped, forcing the deputy to pass between cars. It appears there was no northbound car, so my questions now are why did the driver in the Grand Am slow; how abruptly did she slow? how much did she slow? did she come to a stop before she was hit from behind?
If the northbound lane was clear, all the driver in the Grand Am had to do was slow and move to the right side of the southbound lane. She did not have to stop, unless necessary to allow the squad car to pass safely. With no other northbound traffic, there was no need for her to stop.
Thus, in my mind, she contributed greatly to the crash, as did the driver of the car that hit her.
The Sheriff's Department has two more days to furnish the report of the crash toward which Deputy Oligney was heading. It will be interesting to learn how many squad cars were heading toward that crash and how far away it was.
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2 comments:
I think the driver of the Grand Am did the right thing.
Whitmore2, thanks for your comment.
We'll never know, if all there is is the report of the Bull Valley PD officer.
A highly-trained crash investigator could take this crash apart and figure it out. Right now, for me it's a question of who did what, and when did s/he do it.
Slowing and keeping far to the right side of the southbound lane would have been the right driving action of the driver in the Grand Am. So I wonder whether she slowed abruptly, contributing to being struck by the following car.
That driver was obviously at fault, speeding on cruise control and maybe following too closely or closing in on the Grand Am before the Grand Am driver braked.
It could have been much worse.
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