Read the Greenwood Road crash report

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
July 27, 2010

Last week a McHenry County Sheriff's Department vehicle was involved in a three-car crash on Greenwood Road, when an oncoming vehicle slowed and was rear-ended and then pushed into its path.

You can read the crash report that was obtained by Cal Skinner and the McHenry County Blog. I didn't submit a FOIA request for the crash report. I'm glad I didn't. I don't think I could have kept my sides from splitting from laughter.

I posted a comment on Cal's blog: "Did the Bull Valley officer actually graduate from elementary school?"

Guess I'll have to stay out of Bull Valley for a while.

You can read the report at www.mchenrycountyblog.com/

Aside from the grammatical and spelling errors, the report is a joke. Reports should be clear and straight-forward, so that the reader can understand how a crash most likely occurred. Read that one and decide for yourself. That report is a classic example of why the Illinois State Police should have been called in to investigate the crash.

MCSD should have responded to Cal's FOIA request by providing its records, not shuffling Cal off to Bull Valley PD. I'll bet the repair estimate on the patrol car is considerably over $1,000, since the patrol car hit Unit 2 and then hit a tree.

The Bull Valley crash report is incredibly poorly written. There is no statement about how quickly Unit 2 (the first southbound vehicle) slowed upon seeing the approaching emergency vehicle. Apparently, it had not come to a stop before it was hit from behind. Unit 2 could have still been moving when hit from behind.

Unit 1 (the second southbound car) was speeding in 55MPH zone; there was no mention of why the driver failed to slow and stop before hitting Unit 2.

The statement of the passenger in Unit 2 makes no sense at all.

There was no statement about the speed of Unit 3 (MCSP emergency vehicle), as it ran "hot" north on Greenwood Road or when (or if) the deputy began to slow to avoid a crash.

Notice the B.V. PD report says that the emergency vehicle hit Unit 2, but the MCSP report says that the Grand Am (Unit 2) collided with the emergency vehicle.

Another question in my mind is whether the driver and passenger in Unit 2 (the first southbound vehicle) were legally in the U.S. According to the Bull Valley P.D. report, MCSP Sgt. Campos-Cruz acted as interpreter for both of them. If neither spoke enough English to converse with the Bull Valley PD officer, is that reason to inquire about legal presence in the U.S. (In Arizona, it would be, and it should be here, too.)

I am awaiting the FOIA response from MCSD for the crash toward which Deputy Oligney was heading. I'm curious where it was, what time it had occurred, and how many deputies were running hot toward it.