Woman Dies, Man Injured on I-90 When Speeding Car Strikes Crash Barrels

A woman is dead and a man was injured after she lost control of a fast moving car she was driving early Sunday and crashed on the Kennedy Expressway near Harlem Avenue.

The 25-year-old woman was pronounced dead at 2:55 a.m. at Resurrection Medical Center, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Her identity was not being released pending family notification.

The 24-year-old man who was a passenger in the 1999 Honda Accord was injured and taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois State Police District Chicago Master Sgt. Alan Ulcigrai said.

The Accord was traveling eastbound on the expressway at a high rate of speed about 2:21 a.m. when the driver lost control of the vehicle, left the roadway and struck crash barrels at the Harlem Avenue exit, Ulcigrai said. The Accord then stopped on the right shoulder of the expressway.

Both occupants of the vehicle were wearing seat belts and weather conditions were not believed to have been a factor, Ulcigrai said. An autopsy scheduled for Monday will determine if drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash.

State police initially received a report of a car traveling the wrong direction on the expressway, but later clarified that the woman appeared to be driving in the right direction before the crash.