Driver killed, another seriously injured in wrong-way crash in Arlington Heights: police

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (WLS) -- A wrong-way crash in the northwest suburbs left one man dead and another man badly injured Monday night.

Rand Road near Euclid Avenue in Arlington Heights was shut down for six hours overnight while police investigated.

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ABC7 spoke with a neighbor who heard the whole thing and was on the scene right after it happened.

"We all start walking that way, and all you see is a big cloud of smoke, and it was just a sad scene to see," said Luis Rodriguez.

Rodriguez lives just steps from the intersection of Rand Road and Euclid Avenue, where Arlington Heights police say a purple 2016 Dodge Challenger was driving northwest on Rand when it traveled into the oncoming turn lane and struck a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe head-on. Both vehicles were completely totaled.

The 21-year-old driver of the Dodge died at the scene. The medical examiner's office identified him as Samuel Horcher of Des Plaines.

The 18-year-old driver of the Hyundai needed to be extricated by Mount Prospect fire crews and was transported to Lutheran General with serious injuries.

Rodriguez describes what he heard just before the collision.

"As he gets closer and closer, we just hear this car just rev up to the point it almost shakes the house, and then right around, right past my house here they gun it," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez shared video from his home security system, where you can see and hear several vehicles driving past his house just after 10 p.m., the same time police say the collision occurred.

"And then, all of a sudden, maybe 30 seconds later, we just hear screeching of brakes and then a major almost like mini explosion," Rodriguez said.

It is the second deadly car crash at the intersection of Rand and Euclid in less than a week.

Rodriguez said he has counted at least a dozen collisions here in the last year.

"It's concerning, just knowing the history of that intersection and knowing this, that you hear it almost every weekend, the cars revving up on either northbound or southbound. It's concerning," Rodriguez said.

Arlington Heights police said they are considering both speed and impairment on the part of the driver of the Dodge Challenger as possible factors leading to the crash. A toxicology report can take up to eight weeks.