Since Sept. 5, at least nine people have been injured in five crashes on DeKalb County roads, according to recent reports from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.

At least three minors were among the injured, authorities said.

Asked why so many serious crashes have occurred in DeKalb County over the past week, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jim Burgh said he doesn’t think there’s one specific reason that can be attributed to those crashes.

“After reviewing some of the accidents that we’ve had in the month of September, [there] seems to be no theme of why they’re happening,” Burgh said. “They all have different types of causes. Some have had some injuries, and most have not had any major injuries.”

One of the most severe crashes occurred at 4:40 p.m. Saturday, when a Woodstock woman, 56, was injured while riding a white 2015 Harley-Davidson motorcycle on Somonauk Road in Squaw Grove Township, according to the sheriff’s office.

The woman was flown by a Lifestar helicopter to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove after Sandwich paramedics took her to Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb.

In a news release detailing the motorcycle crash, authorities said the incident occurred when the woman’s motorcycle went onto the road’s shoulder and hit gravel after navigating a curve on Somonauk Road. As a result, her motorcycle drove through the ditch, struck a culvert and landed in a soybean field.

That wasn’t the only car crash the sheriff’s deputies responded to Saturday. Earlier that day, at 9:11 a.m., a 24-year-old Peru woman was injured in a two-car crash at the intersection of Route 64 and First Street.

The woman, who did not have any passengers at the time of the crash, was taken to Kishwaukee Hospital with unspecified injuries, according to the sheriff’s office.

That crash occurred when the Peru woman failed to reduce speed to avoid an accident, subsequently striking the back of a Ford Edge driven by a Rochelle man, 46, with a juvenile passenger, authorities said. Neither of the occupants of the Ford were injured.

In 2024, 138 crashes on DeKalb County roads caused five deaths and injured 161 people, according to the 2024 DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office annual report. July and August saw the highest number of injuries from car crashes in DeKalb County in 2024, while November, September and April had among the lowest, according to the report.

Overall, 61.23% of reported crashes in 2024 occurred during daylight, and more than 81% of the reported crashes happened during clear weather conditions.

Burgh said drivers should remember to stay off their cellphones and minimize distractions while driving. He also said drivers need to keep an eye out for ongoing roadwork.

“We still have a fair amount of road construction going on,” Burgh said. “Please be cautious entering those zones for those workers.”

Multiple people also were injured in crashes on DeKalb County roads Sunday.

At 5:11 p.m. Sunday, a man and woman from Crestwood, along with one child, were hospitalized after suffering injuries in a two-car crash at the intersection of University Road and Fairview Drive.

The man, 37, was driving a 2022 Honda Accord with a 34-year-old woman and a minor as passengers when a 2021 Ram truck struck the passenger side of their vehicle. The crash occurred when the man disobeyed a stop sign and drove in front of the truck, driven by a 19-year-old from Malta with a 19-year-old Shabbona passenger, according to the sheriff’s office.

No one in the truck suffered injuries. But all three Honda occupants were injured and taken to Kishwaukee Hospital by paramedics from Malta, DeKalb and Shabbona.

A little over an hour later, at 6:29 p.m., at least two minors and a Camanche, Iowa, woman, 33, were hospitalized at Northwestern Medicine Valley West Hospital in Sandwich after suffering injuries in a two-car crash in southern DeKalb County.

A teenager behind the wheel of a Honda Accord with two minors as passengers disobeyed a stop sign, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies said the driver couldn’t see the stop sign because of the sun. The Honda entered the intersection of Suydam Road and Route 23, which caused a Chevrolet Equinox that had been traveling south on Route 23 to strike the vehicle, authorities said.

At least one of the minors in the Honda was injured in the crash, but the driver was not, according to the sheriff’s office report. The Iowa woman and her passenger, also a minor, were injured in the crash. Officials described the injuries as not life-threatening.

At 8:55 a.m. Sept. 5, a North Aurora woman, 29, suffered injuries after a two-car crash in the intersection of Route 38 and Nelson Road in western DeKalb Township.

The North Aurora woman, along with her DeKalb passenger, was taken to Kishwaukee Hospital by DeKalb paramedics, according to the sheriff’s office.

They were traveling west on Route 38 when the 2014 Chevrolet they were riding in was struck by a 2019 Nissan driven by a DeKalb woman, according to the release. The DeKalb woman, 33, was not injured in the crash and signed medical waivers, according to the release.

Since Sept. 5, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office has responded to two other crashes. No one was injured in those crashes, however.

After observing a spike in motor vehicle crashes, Burgh urged drivers to be on the lookout for a seasonal type of road hazard this fall: combines.

“As we go into the fall, though, I definitely would remind people that farming equipment is going to start moving from field to field as they start their fall harvest,” Burgh said. “So definitely be cautious of that.”