Serious accident investigated on I-80 below I-39 overpass
Life Flight contacted
By the NewsTribune staff
NewsTribune photo/Scott Anderson
Emergency crews start with cleanup work after freeing two people from the large SUV that received severe front end damage after somehow going off of an Interstate 39 overpass onto Interstate 80.
NewsTribune photo/Scott Anderson
A Life Flight paramedic crew places a patient into the helicopter that landed along Interstate 80 after a serious and unusual traffic accident and after extrication work at a crash scene below and between the Interstate 39 overpasses at La Salle.
NewsTribune photo/Scott Anderson
A Life Flight helicopter sits on Interstate 80 where an SUV went off of Interstate 39 and came to rest, with heavy front-end damage, on 80 and between and below the overpasses.
An initial report indicated that a vehicle drove, rolled or fell off of the Interstate 39 overpass onto westbound Interstate 80 at about 11:45 a.m. today.
A silver sport-utility vehicle with significant front-end damage was surrounded by rescue crews west of the overpass, and Illinois Department of Transportation and firefighters were directing motorists past the scene along the shoulder near the median.
La Salle and Utica firefighters and emergency medical technicians rushed to the scene, and initial reports indicated extrication would be needed. By 11:59 a.m., firefighters reported the occupants had been removed from the SUV.
A Life Flight helicopter landed at the scene and was in the air with at least one patient by 12:17 p.m.
