An Illinois State Trooper was killed last Thursday evening when a semi-truck slammed into his police cruiser. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the 28-year-old police officer was on duty when the truck hit him on I-294 near Willow Road. The fatal car accident happened shortly before 11 p.m. according to a State Police spokeswoman.
The accident was so severe that the trooper’s body was taken to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office still strapped in the car. Once there, a crowd of police officers and state troopers watched the trooper’s body get extricated from the car by firefighters.
Coworkers say that the trooper was highly charismatic and had been thanked by several arrestees for pleasant rides to the police station. He had been a trooper since 2008 and was newly married.
It is unclear what caused the accident, but the trucker was not arrested. Authorities say that semi-trucks are only allowed to drive in the right two lanes of I-294 under Illinois law, but the semi truck was in the far left lane. It is unclear why the truck was in the wrong lane and the investigation into the crash is ongoing.