As with anything these days, rumors so quickly can get in the way of facts.
In this case, I can see why.
The two-vehicle crash on Keslinger Road in an unincorporated part of Blackberry Township near Elburn occurred around 7:15 a.m. Monday, about the time most kids were heading to Kaneland High School just a couple miles to the west.
A rural school district that covers a whole lot of country roads, Kaneland has, unfortunately, seen far more than its share of car accidents involving students over the years, too many of them fatal.
So when word started getting out about the Monday morning crash, it did not take long for false info to start a panic among parents that the incident involved the airlifting of a student.
The Kane County Sheriff’s Office heard it as well.
Which is why, the preliminary press release that went out a few hours after the fatal accident specifically mentioned that neither of the yet unidentified victims – the one who died and the one who survived – were Kaneland kids.
“We can’t keep ahead of this stuff,” Kane County Chief Deputy Pat Gengler told me later that same morning, referring to the information, true or false, that gets dispersed so quickly these days.
Kane County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Pat Gengler said there have been four serious accidents in the county recently, including three fatal crashes. (Denise Crosby / The Beacon-News)
“If this were July we would not be talking about it,” he said. But because school had started and the incident was playing out with students on their way to classes, some posts inaccurately reported kids were involved.
Maybe someone saw a kid standing by the crash, perhaps as a witness, maybe a good Samaritan – and assumed students were involved, he told me. And who can always discern the difference between “who a kid is” and who is a young adult, he added.
“We can’t put anything out right away until we make sure it is true,” Gengler said, noting that unlike larger departments, the sheriff’s office does not have a dedicated team or person in the public information role.
Later Monday afternoon, the ages and addresses of the victims were revealed – 27 and 45 – but still no names, as authorities continued to notify families and/or give them time to process the tragedy before identities were revealed to the public.
Which, he added, is getting harder to do these days because people demand information immediately and there are those willing to put it out before verification.
“We need to be as accurate as we can, which means not rushing stuff,” Gengler insisted, referring to the crash on Randall and Red Oak roads in St. Charles last week that led to conflicting information about the fate of one of the victims.
The sheriff’s department, Gengler says, has had a “particularly rough stretch” the past 10 days, with four serious accidents, three of them fatal.
A crash on Route 30 near Orchard Road in Montgomery – where excessive speed was involved, police said – claimed the life of a 19-year-old Aurora man. The following afternoon, another 19-year-old was killed in the aforementioned crash at Red Oak and Randall roads.
A third serious crash occurred in Big Rock Township that required a helicopter to airlift victims.
And now the Keslinger Road fatal this week, where the chopper was called but not used.
If nothing else, this Monday morning incident with kids heading to school was a grim reminder to young drivers that, while crashes are often referred to as accidents, few truly are.
“We can hammer it into them all we want, but at some point, drivers need to be responsible for their actions,” says Gengler.
Still, police will continue to hammer.
On Tuesday morning, in response to the string of crash fatalities, Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain, who lives in Elburn not far from the Keslinger collision site, issued a release intended to not only bring awareness to “this sensitive topic,” but assist in helping to “reverse this devastating trend.”
In spite of 1,535 traffic stops in the last three months by his office – 604 of which resulted in citations, 931 in written warnings – “we cannot keep our roadways safe alone …” the sheriff wrote.
Then the age-old plea went out to all ages, yet again: Use proper safety constraints. Don’t drive impaired, which includes phones as well as drugs or alcohol. And for heaven’s sake, slow down.
Kaneland kids may have arrived at their destinations on Monday, but two other people did not.
As Hain noted, “we need everyone’s help to keep our roads safe.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
Copyright © 2022, Chicago Tribune
Copyright © 2022, Chicago Tribune