An Elburn woman who shoved her husband out of the way of an oncoming truck while they were helping a motorist on Route 20 in Elgin Monday died of her injuries a few hours later, Kane County Coroner Rob Russell said.
The couple had stopped to check on a juvenile girl who lost control of her vehicle and struck a guardrail about 8:30 p.m. on westbound Route 20 near McLean Road, an Elgin Police Department Facebook post said.While Katarzyna Kurek-Polk, 38, was standing with her 62-year-old husband and the girl along the side of the road, a 43-year-old man driving westbound also lost control of his car and came toward them, according to Russell’s news release and the police post.
Kurek-Polk saw the vehicle in time to push her husband out of the way but was struck herself, the coroner’s office said. She was taken to Amita Health St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, where she died sometime before 11:15 p.m., according to the coroner.The juvenile driver, the man in the third vehicle and Kurek-Polk’s husband were treated for minor injuries and released from area hospitals, the police post said.
A preliminary investigation done by the Elgin Police Department Traffic Unit indicated that weather conditions may have contributed to the crashes, the post said.An autopsy done Wednesday found Kurek-Polk’s cause of death to be blunt force trauma from being hit by the truck, the coroner’s office said.
The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call 847-289-2660.