5 injured when car, ambulance collide in Streamwood

STREAMWOOD, Ill. (WLS) -- Five people are in the hospital Sunday night after a car and ambulance collide with a patient inside the emergency vehicle in the city's northwest suburbs.

All five people involved in the accident were brought to St. Elexius Hospital where they are being treated. The Streamwood Fire Department said the crash started around 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon when a private ambulance carrying a patient in back was traveling southbound on Route 59 at Tall Grass Court in Streamwood when it collided with a Honda CRV.

The ambulance sustained significant front end damage, but those inside were not seriously hurt. In fact, fire department officials said when they arrived on the scene, the paramedics from the ambulance were already attending to the female patient they were carrying.

The damage to the CRV, however, was so bad on all sides that both the male driver and the female passenger had to be extricated.

"What we ended up doing was removing the roof, removing the posts in order to get the driver out," said Battalion Chief Bill Schmidt, Streamwood Fire Department. "The passenger who was in there, we removed within the first five minutes of us beginning the extrication."

The fire department said that at least one of the people who was in the CRV required what they are calling advanced life support measures.

While it is presumed that the ambulance did have its emergency lights and sirens on, all of the details of the investigation are in the hands of the Streamwood Police Department.