Person flown with critical injuries after crash near Union Tuesday

A medical helicopter’s flight crew helped to provide advanced medical care to a crash victim Tuesday morning while rescue crews worked for almost an hour to extricate the man from his wrecked pickup truck near Union, according to a fire district spokesman.

The Marengo Fire & Rescue Districts and Union Fire Protection District were called about 8 a.m. Tuesday to the intersection of North Union Road and Route 176 for a two-vehicle crash. Crews arriving on the scene found both vehicles in the northwest ditch and both with heavy damage, Marengo districts spokesman Alex Vucha said.

The driver of a pickup truck was unconscious and “heavily entrapped” in the vehicle, Vucha said. A second ambulance and a heavy rescue squad were requested to assist, and a medical helicopter was called to the scene, landing in a nearby field.

Until the driver could be freed from the vehicle, the flight crew worked alongside firefighters to stabilize him, Vucha said. Once the man was successfully removed from the vehicle, he was transferred to the waiting helicopter, flown to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with critical injuries.

The driver of the second vehicle, a black SUV, was taken to Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital with moderate injuries, Vucha said.

During the extrication, Woodstock Fire/Rescue District assisted Marengo, taking an unrelated medical call in the district, while the Huntley Fire Protection District provided change-of-quarters coverage, Vucha said.

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the crash.