Passenger flown to hospital in crash that closed Route 14 near Woodstock, damaged natural gas equipment

Route 14 near Woodstock was shut down Monday afternoon between Hartland Road and Dunham Road because of a traffic crash and related damage to natural gas equipment.

The area is between Woodstock and Harvard.

The McHenry County Sheriff’s office announced the closure in an alert Monday afternoon.

John Kimmel, the Harvard Fire Protection District chief, said that the crash involved three vehicles. One car rear-ended a second car near the Old Rivers Inn by the intersection of Route 14 and Dimmel Road. Kimmel said the second car ended up in a field south of Route 14, and the first car hit a car parked in the Old Rivers Inn parking lot. The first car had one passenger who was flown to Javon Bea Hospital in Rockford in serious condition, and two people in the second car declined medical treatment at the scene.

A Nicor spokesperson said in a message Monday afternoon that the gas company was alerted to damage in the same area to the utility’s equipment in the 17100 block of Route 14 in Woodstock about 2:30 p.m and a Nicor first responder was on the site at 3 p.m.

She said a regulator was damaged and confirmed it was related to the crash. One business suffered a natural gas outage because of the damage.

“Our personnel are working with first responders to secure the site and safely make the necessary repairs to restore natural gas service as soon as possible,” Nicor spokesperson Jennifer Golz said.