Five people, including two small children, were ejected from an SUV in a fatal three-vehicle accident Sunday evening near Gurnee.
Another person in the SUV died from injuries in the crash, which happened at the U.S. Route 45 intersection with Rollins Road in Warren Township, the Lake County sheriff’s office said Monday.
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The five people who were ejected suffered critical or serious injuries, though all are expected to survive, police said. The driver, a 34-year-old Mundelein man, was also injured.
The five people who were ejected ranged from two boys, ages 2 and 4; along with two women ages 24 and 31, and a 63-year-old woman, all of Mundelein.
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The person who died was a 62-year-old Mundelein man, police said.
The group was traveling west on Rollins Road at about 6:40 p.m. when the driver attempted to make a left turn onto Route 45 on a yellow light, police said. The SUV was struck in the intersection by a pickup truck that was going east on Rollins.
The pickup driver, a 22-year-old Round Lake man was treated by paramedics, and two of his passengers, both 19-year-old men, were taken to Lake Forest Hospital with what police said were non-life-threatening injuries.
A third vehicle was struck by debris, but no one inside was injured, police said.
According to police, it appears the two children were riding on the laps of two of the back seat passengers in the SUV. None of the people ejected were wearing seat belts, police said.
Sheriff’s office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said, “It is of the utmost importance children are restrained properly in a child safety seat, booster or in a seat belt, depending on their weight and age. For both children and adults, being restrained in a vehicle is their best chance of not being critically injured or killed in a crash.”