Two women killed in crash with dump truck near Wauconda

WAUCONDA – Two women were killed when the vehicle they were riding in turned in front of a dump truck Wednesday along Fairfield Road, authorities said. A third woman in their vehicle also was seriously injured.

About 8 a.m. May 8, Lake County Sheriff’s deputies responded to Fairfield Road and Chardon Road, an unincorporated area near Wauconda, for a traffic crash with injuries, according to a news release.

Preliminary investigation shows a 2007 Mack dump truck, driven by a 44-year-old Round Lake Park, was traveling north on Fairfield Road, approaching Chardon Road. A 2007 Nissan Versa, driven by a 48-year-old Waukegan woman, was traveling west on Chardon Road, approaching Fairfield Road at the same time.

Traffic on Chardon Road at Fairfield Road has stop sign, but there is no stop sign or traffic control device for traffic on Fairfield Road at this intersection. The driver of the Nissan entered the intersection, directly in front of the Mack truck, according to the release.

The front of the dump truck struck the driver’s side of the Nissan. The dump truck then rolled onto its side, spilling a load of loose concrete, police said.

The driver of the Nissan was pronounced dead at the scene. A back-seat passenger in the Nissan, a 55-year-old Round Lake Beach woman, also was pronounced dead at the scene. A front-seat passenger in the Nissan, a 45-year-old Round Lake Beach woman, was taken to an area hospital with critical injuries that later were deemed to be not life-threatening. The driver of the dump truck was uninjured.

The women who died have been identified as 48-year-old Carmen Zeron, of Waukegan, and 55-year-old Angelica Juarez, of Round Lake Beach. On Wednesday, autopsies were conducted at the Lake County Coroner’s Office and preliminary results indicate that Zeron and Juarez both died from blunt force injuries as a result of the crash.

The crash remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Team.