Eight people had to be hospitalized on Monday afternoon after a semi failed to slow down on Interstate 94 near a Chicago suburb, causing a multiple car pile-up involving six vehicles.
Authorities stated that the tollway was blocked for about five hours following the crash, which occurred around 5:45 pm in the westbound lanes near mile marker 8, according to Illinois State Police Master Sgt. G. Minx.
“There were eight injuries – seven drivers and a passenger,” said Sgt Minx, while confirming that no tickets had been issued as of yesterday afternoon and that none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Still, the Fire Department had their hands full as two of the victims did prove hard to extract from the wreckage, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. “The one extrication took about 10 minutes, but the other one took us a little longer, almost 30 minutes,” explained Gurnee Fire Department battalion chief Bob Heraver.
This comes as no surprise since the impact is truly devastating and at least two cars were even propelled upwards due to the sheer force of the crash – namely the first car hit by the semi and the SUV.
The driver of the semi was lucky as well since after the initial impact, the cab took quite a hit from one of the cars, which could have easily broken through to the passenger compartment.
Note: Some readers might find this footage disturbing