Person critically injured, 2 others hospitalized in crash that shut down Route 14 in Harvard area

One person suffered life-threatening injuries and two others were moderately injured in a crash Thursday morning near Harvard.

The Harvard Fire Protection District responded to a “serious two-vehicle crash” to find one vehicle off the road in a ditch and the other more than 100 feet away, with debris scattered across the road, public information officer Alex Vucha said.

Crews confirmed that nobody was trapped inside the vehicles, although the call originally had been dispatched as a crash with entrapment, Vucha said.

More Harvard, Woodstock and Hebron ambulances were dispatched, and the emergency ground response vehicle MD-1 responded to the scene. Crews requested a medical helicopter, but it wasn’t able to fly because of the weather, Vucha said.

A male in a silver sedan “had reportedly been ejected and was located with critical, life-threatening injuries,” Vucha said. He was taken to Javon Bea Hospital-Riverside in Rockford. A woman and a child in a pickup truck were taken to Javon Bea Hospital-Riverside with moderate injuries, Vucha said.

Route 14 was closed for several hours between Hebron and Oak Grove roads because of the crash. The McHenry County Sheriff’s Major Crash Investigations Unit processed the scene and investigated the incident, Vucha said.