Driver Ejected When Car Splits In Half In Palos Heights Crash

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL -- A man was seriously injured Friday afternoon when his Ford Mustang split in half after crashing into another vehicle on the Ridgeland Avenue bridge, Palos Heights police said. The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Ridgeland Avenue was closed in both directions during the afternoon rush hour between Route 83 and 115th Street.

Deputy Chief Bill Czajkowski, of the Palos Heights Police Department, said they received a call of an accident around 3:20 p.m. of an accident on the Palos Heights-Worth border. The Ford Mustang, driven by a sole male driver, was traveling southbound when the Mustang hit an SUV traveling northbound in the middle of the bridge. Witnesses told police that the driver of the Mustang appeared to have lost control of the car.

>>> Ridgeland Reopens After 2-Car Crash In Palos Heights

The Mustang shot across the bridge into the northbound lanes and struck the guardrail, shearing the car in half, ejecting the driver. The car came to rest in the southbound lanes. The woman driving the SUV did not appear to have serious injuries. The driver of the Mustang was “not in good shape” and appeared to be unconscious, the deputy chief said.

Worth and Palos Heights police continue to investigate. Czajkowski said the drivers of both vehicles appeared to be in their thirties. He did not know the condition of the injured Mustang driver.

There was so much debris from both vehicles that we had to bring in a street sweeper,” the deputy chief said. “It took some time for the towing company to dislodge the rear half of the Mustang that was impaled on the guard rail.”

~ Photo via Palos Heights PD