Coroner IDs Man Who Drowned After ATV Crashed Through Ice

THIRD LAKE, IL — A 62-year-old man is dead after he crashed his all-terrain vehicle through the ice at Druce Lake in Third Lake Tuesday afternoon.

A preliminary investigation shows the man, who has been identified as Rodney Allard, 62, of unincorporated Lake Villa, was driving the ATV at bout 4:05 p.m. Tuesday when the back of the vehicle cracked the thin ice at the center of the lake, according to a news release from the Lake County Coroner's Office. Allard slipped into the water and went under.

A sheriff's office deputy used a row boat to go to the area in the water where they last saw the man, and a diver from the fire department found Allard six feet below the surface of the water, according to authorities. The diver attached a rope to Allard and deputies and firefighters pulled him to shore.

Paramedics took the man, who lives just east of Druce Lake, to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville in very critical condition, police said. He was pronounced dead hours later.

Preliminary results from an autopsy revealed Allard died from drowning.