(Lake Zurich, Illinois – September 1, 2014)
A local 14-year-old boy lay unconscious and unidentified in critical condition at the Advocate Medical Center in Libertyville, IL for more than a day after he was struck by a Canadian National Railway freight train along the mainly unfenced railroad corridor that crosses Route 12 via an overpass in Lake Zurich, IL early Labor Day (Monday) morning at about 5:35 A.M.
The boy, who was finally identified after his parents filed a missing person report, was carrying no identification on his person or in his backpack which was filled with artist’s supplies.
Lake Zurich Police Chief Steve Husak said that the victim’s comatose condition made identification difficult, and that there were still no details as to exactly how the accident occurred. Police for some time mistakenly felt the victim was a white male in his early to mid twenties, and did not connect the missing teen with the train accident victim.
Law enforcement authorities were still withholding the victim’s name, even though they were finally able to determine who he was and match him up with his parents, who spent a horrendous Labor Day wondering where their son had disappeared to.
