Lake County Gazette

Lake County Sheriff's Traffic Crash Investigators are examining two separate motorcycle accidents that occurred on July 18 and 19, resulting in one fatality and another serious injury.

According to a news release, Lake County Sheriff's deputies responded at 2:35 p.m. on July 18 to a traffic incident at Route 176 and Bradley Road in Green Oaks. They discovered a motorcyclist who had sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. The Lake County Coroner's Office is scheduling an autopsy.

The preliminary investigation indicated that a 2013 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, driven by a 35-year-old man from Round Lake Beach, was traveling westbound on Route 176. Witnesses reported that the motorcycle driver approached Bradley Road while the traffic light was green for westbound traffic. A 2008 Peterbilt semi-truck with a trailer, driven by a 50-year-old McHenry man, was traveling east on Route 176. The truck driver began turning left to head northbound on Bradley Road, directly in front of the motorcycle, leading to a collision. The Peterbilt driver was uninjured and is cooperating with the ongoing investigation by the Lake County Sheriff's Office Technical Crash Investigations Team.

In another incident reported in a separate news release, deputies responded to a crash at 3:10 a.m. on July 19 on Route 173 near Crawford Road in Old Mill Creek. Upon arrival, they found the driver of a 1993 Kawasaki Ninja, identified as a 54-year-old McHenry man, suffering from serious injuries. The preliminary investigation revealed that the Kawasaki driver was traveling eastbound on Route 173 when he was struck from behind by an unidentified vehicle, causing him to lose control and crash. He sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to an area hospital.

Crash investigators have recovered car parts from the scene of this second accident and are analyzing them to identify the make and model of the vehicle involved before it fled. This crash also remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff's Technical Crash Investigations team.