6 hurt in Stevenson crash after semi driver fell asleep at the wheel

Police said a semi-truck driver fell asleep and struck more than a dozen cars on I-55 near First Avenue.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (WLS)

 

Six people were injured when the driver of a semi-truck fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into 13 vehicles on the Stevenson Expressway near 1st Avenue, Illinois State Police said.

None of the injuries is considered life-threatening, officials said. The crash happened in a construction zone around 5 a.m. Friday and shut down all inbound lanes of I-55 at 1st Avenue for about two hours.

Terry Nero was on her way to work early Friday morning when her vehicle was struck by the semi. She can still walk, but her neck and clavicle are broken, and she has a pain in her side.

"It's terrible. I almost fell over when I saw her. I didn't know if she was alive or dead when I got the phone call," Carmen Nero, Jr., husband, said.

"The car was ejected up in the air, and flew over, landed directly on top of, in front of my mother's car," Carmen Nero, III, son, said.

State police said the truck driver told them he fell asleep.

No charges or citations have been filed, but the investigation continues, police said.