Deputy injured in crash - not at hospital

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
April 1, 2011

This morning's Northwest Herald carried a photo and story about a two-car crash in unincorporated McHenry County near Crystal Lake yesterday morning.

Deputy Unknown was stopped in his squad car on northbound Ill. Route 31 at Crystal Lake Avenue, when his squad car was struck from behind by a driver from Aurora, Ill. Presumably, the deputy was stopped at a red light, but the story and the press release on the sheriff's department website don't report that.

Don't drivers from Aurora know better than to rear-end a squad car? I guess not.

The deputy was not identified, either in the story or the press release on the sheriff's department website. What's the big secret?

The photo in the Northwest Herald shows the deputy on a stretcher, being wheeled toward the paramedics' vehicle, in which he was transported to a hospital. This sentence in the caption got my attention: "The deputy was taken to Centegra Hospital - McHenry but later released without any serious injuries."

Sure glad that no one got injured while they were releasing him from the hospital!

At least the newspaper got the name of the hospital right. It's no longer called "Centegra Medical Center", as stated in the press release on the sheriff's website.