Nobody was hurt in a rear-end crash involving two semi-tractor trailer trucks on First Avenue in North Riverside on the afternoon of Nov. 14, but the cleanup effort snarled traffic for nearly two hours.
A 31-year-old Orlando, Florida, man at the wheel of the offending 2023 Freightliner semi owned by Rakmark Inc. of Alsip reportedly told police he was northbound in the 2500 block of First Avenue at about 2:10 p.m. when he rear-ended a 2021 Mack truck owned by T.C. Transport Inc. of Hammond, which stopped abruptly in front of his vehicle.
The impact of the crash set off a chain of collisions involving three passenger vehicles stopped in traffic in front of the Mack truck, which came to rest on the east sidewalk.
The Freightliner sustained disabling damage, according to the North Riverside police crash report, but both trucks needed to be towed from the scene.
Northbound lanes of First Avenue were closed to traffic between 26th Street and Cermak Road for about two hours as a front-end loader and street sweeper were called in to assist with the cleanup. Southbound traffic was reduced to one lane.
Police cited the driver of the offending vehicle for failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash.
