Airbags Didn't Deploy In Crash That Killed Batavia Man: Kane Sheriff

BATAVIA, IL — A Batavia man was killed early Nov. 30 in a single-car crash with a utility pole in Sugar Grove Township, according to the Kane County Sheriff's Office.

The 48-year-old Ariel Martinez, of Wilson Street in Batavia, was critically injured in the crash in the 2S800 block of Bliss Road and was pronounced deceased at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital a short time later, officials said.

The Kane County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the site of the crash just before 3 a.m. when deputies found a 2007 silver Chevrolet Impala in the eastside ditch on Bliss Road. Officials said the car was significantly damaged on the driver's side after it veered off the road "for unknown reasons" and hit a utility pole.

Firefighters from the Elburn and Countryside Fire Protection District helped deputies extricate Martinez from the car due to its "heavy damage" and assessed the man's life-threatening injuries before taking him to the Geneva hospital, where he died, officials said.

Martinez was the car's sole occupant. The sheriff's office confirmed he was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, but the car's airbags didn't deploy.

"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Martinez family," the sheriff's office wrote in a news release.

The sheriff's office continues to investigate the crash.