Edens Expressway Crash Critically Injures Motorcycling Trio: ISP

WILMETTE, IL — Five people were injured, three of them with life-threatening injuries, in a traffic crash Wednesday on the Edens Expressway involving a pair of motorcycles and a car, police said.

Around 11:45 p.m., the two motorcycles and a gray Kia pulling a trailer were headed southbound on Interstate 94 just north of Lake Avenue, according to Illinois State Police.

One of the motorcycles rear-ended the Kia, according to the preliminary crash investigation, which caused it to veer into two other lanes. The 27-year-old Chicago man who was driving and the 28-year-old Chicago woman who was his passenger were both thrown from the bike and suffered serious injuries.

The other motorcycle, a black Yamaha, then struck the front end of the Kia, state police said, with the force of the impact sending it crashing into a concrete wall and ejecting its driver. He suffered life-threatening injuries.

The driver and passenger of the Kia, a pair of Chicago men in their 50s, were both taken to the hospital with injuries that state police did not consider to be life-threatening.

Shortly before midnight, police shut down all lanes of traffic in both directions on the Edens Expressway between Lake Avenue and Old Orchard Road for the investigation. State police said they reopened northbound lanes within an hour and southbound lanes shortly after 5:30 a.m.

Ardjent Bektesi, 24, of Elk Grove Village, the driver of the Yamaha, was issued citations for violation of driver’s license classification, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle with a cancelled, suspended or revoked Illinois registration and driving too fast for conditions, according to state police.