Two-squad-car crash near Wonder Lake

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
June 22, 2011

Only one more day, and then I should have the crash report about the two squad cars of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department that crashed on June 8th about 9:30PM. This is the one that stayed out-of-sight and out of the news, until the Northwest Herald published a short clip on June 16. It happened in unincorporated McHenry County, near Wonder Lake.

At that time the Public Information Officer (presumably the MCSD employee with whom the reporter dealt) didn't know the names of the deputies who were involved, whether either was on duty, whether either was injured, whether any tickets were issued (not reported in the article).

Now, if you believe that one, call me without delay about the bridge in New York that I'd like to sell you!

An "internal" investigation is underway. Now, why would that be? What about the crash report and the on-the-scene decision about the at-fault driver? Was it investigated by an outside agency? I mean, by an impartial one?

Sometimes those involved are identified by Unit 1 (at-fault) driver, Unit 2, Witness 1, etc. Sometimes, the initial report might refer to Person A or Person B. When will MCSD tell us whether Deputy H or Deputy L was involved and which one was at fault?

MCSD has taken two weeks, so far, to figure out what any accident investigator should have been able to figure out in 20 minutes. Did the first story from the at-fault driver hold water? Did the story change? Several times?

The longer MCSD takes to reveal what really happened on June 8th, the worse it looks for them. Was it a "simple" accident? What would be the reason for an "internal" investigation? Unless ...