On Day Watch, 5-30-02, Woodridge Ofc. Buck #112 responded to a 10-50 PI on 75th street west of Dunham Road. An 87 year old woman driving a passenger vehicle failed to yield while turning left into The Grove Plaza and was struck by a full tractor-trailer rig from Clipper Express of Darien. The vehicle airbag deployed and woman was transported to the hospital.

Although the primary cause of the crash was the elderly woman failing to yield, (similar to the Rt. 53 and 83rd car vs. truck crash), the panic stop skid marks left on the pavement by the semi led officers to believe the truck's brakes might not be functioning correctly.

Note in the picture below how only the passenger side rear trailer tandem axles left black tire skid marks on the pavement and there are no markings from the other wheels:

Dist. 2 was called and MCS Trooper Eldred #4910 responded to the scene. He checked the 1989 truck, (which was displaying valid federal safety inspection stickers), and found that 6 out of the trucks 10 brakes were not working! The truck was "Red Tagged" and placed "Out Of Service" forcing the owners to off-load the shipment onto another truck and have a heavy wrecker called to tow the semi away for repairs.

You do not need this kind of suspicion to justify calling ISP for an MCS Trooper. They would like to respond to ANY personal injury crash or roll-over involving a commercial vehicle.

Sgt. Bruce R. Talbot
Woodridge PD