3 Dead and 5 Injured After Car Hits Group Standing Near Separate Crash Site on Highway

Three people were killed and five others were injured after a car crashed into a group of people near a separate collision on an Illinois highway.

The incident occurred just after midnight local time on Wednesday, Dec. 3, on Interstate 57 in Calumet Park, according to preliminary information from Illinois State Police obtained by PEOPLE.

A preliminary investigation indicated the first crash involved three vehicles just south of 120th Street, authorities said.

The second crash happened a short time later, during which “a different vehicle hit three occupants outside of a vehicle from the initial crash,” state police added.

Three people were pronounced dead at the scene of the crashes, officials said. Their identities have not been released.

At least five others “were transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” state troopers said.

Some witnesses claimed an alleged erratic driver may have caused the crash, including one woman who said a black vehicle appeared to be going at least 100 miles per hour, according to CBS affiliate WBBM

Arthur Thomas told ABC affiliate WLS that his daughter was among those involved in the crash. He claimed the crash occurred when “a car sideswiped and then tried to run off the road.”

“The cars had hit a couple of more cars and they ran off the road and when she stopped, the car they hit in front of them,” he explained. “I guess they knocked some people out the car and there was like three or four bodies on the expressway.” She survived the crash, according to CW affiliate WGN.

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