A driver who slammed into another car, causing a fiery crash with multiple injuries, fled the scene of the collision in the Humboldt Park neighborhood overnight.
A toddler and her mother were seriously hurt when they were ejected from a car in the hit-and-run crash on the West Side. The toddler suffered severe head injuries and both she and her mother are in critical condition Thursday morning.
Two other people in the car, including an infant in a car seat, are also listed in critical condition, but police reported their injuries as non-life-threatening.
The driver of the speeding vehicle that caused the crash fled on foot and police are still searching for the missing motorist Thursday morning.
Witnesses told police a Jeep “flying” east on West Chicago Avenue struck a westbound Oldsmobile Cutlass attempting to turn onto North Hamlin Avenue, police said.
A 20-year-old mother and the 2-year-old daughter sitting on her lap in the passenger’s seat of the Oldsmobile were ejected from the car.
Chicago police officers rescued the 21-year-old driver and a 7-week-old infant from the burning vehicle, while another officer assisted the woman and toddler until paramedics arrived, police said. The infant was restrained in a carseat in the backseat.
The 2-year-old is at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital with severe head injuries, while her mother is in stable condition at Mount Sinai Hospital with unidentified injuries. The driver is at Stroger Hospital and the infant is in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
Fire Media Affairs spokesman Joe Roccasalva said an EMS Plan 1 response, which automatically sends five ambulances to the scene, was called at 12:46 a.m.
Two people in the Jeep fled on foot in an unidentified direction after the crash and were not in custody Thursday morning, police said.
The police Major Accident Investigation Unit is investigating the crash as a hit-and-run.
