Squad car crashes through guardrail on Foster and free falls onto the Kennedy

by BRIAN NADIG

A Chicago police officer was injured at about 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, when her squad car crashed through a guardrail on the Foster Avenue bridge over the Kennedy Expressway, causing the vehicle to strike a light post and free fall onto a grassy area along the shoulder of the outbound lanes.

The officer, who was transported to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, suffered several injuries which were described as not life threatening, according to the 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.

The officer reportedly was responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle on the inbound Kennedy when she lost control of her car as she was traveling west on Foster and had just come out from under the viaduct.

The squad car did not hit any other vehicles on the expressway and landed straight up, although it was turned around. The front of the squad car was severely smashed, and a portion of the guardrail and the light post could be seen in front of the squad car.

See pictures below.

Several motorists on the expressway assisted officers, police said. The squad car had caught fire and a truck driver provided a fire extinguisher that a sergeant used to put out the fire, police said.

The suspicious vehicle reportedly had been used in a burglary to a parked car and the driver was not caught, police said.

The outbound lanes were closed for several hours, and the guardrail was repaired later in the morning.