Sunday night’s winter storm turned fatal on a north-suburban expressway. At around 8:54 p.m., a westbound SUV, a 2004 Chevrolet Suburban, was traveling on Grand Avenue over Interstate 94 in Gurnee, Illinois when the driver attempted a lane change. Law enforcement says the vehicle struck a patch of ice, lost control, crossed the center median and entered the eastbound lanes — colliding head-on with a 2007 Ford Focus.
The impact was brutal. The Focus was forced off the roadway and into a nearby ditch. The driver of that vehicle was 29-year-old Bria Allen of Evanston; she was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Lake County Coroner’s Office later confirmed blunt-force trauma as the cause of death.
In the Suburban were a 29-year-old woman from Waukegan and her two young children — a 5-year-old boy and an 8-month-old girl. All three were transported to area hospitals with injuries; their current conditions haven’t been released publicly. According to the latest updates, the occupants of the Suburban were uninjured, according to one report, so the Waukegan family referenced above appear to be in the Focus.
Weather played a key part in the tragedy. The region was seeing its first major snowstorm of the season, creating icy road surfaces. Investigators from the Gurnee Police Department and the Lake County Major Crash Assistance Team (MCAT) believe the patch of ice struck by the Suburban triggered the loss of vehicle control.
Emergency response was significant. Fire and rescue crews arrived shortly after the crash was reported. Roadway closures followed: Grand Avenue, between the Tri-State Parkway and Dilleys Road, was shut down for hours while investigators worked the scene.
Among the debris and chaos, a third vehicle got caught in the aftermath. A Toyota Highlander traveling eastbound alongside the Focus struck flying debris from the crash and suffered a flat tire. Its occupants escaped without physical injury.
As of now, the Gurnee Police Department’s investigation remains ongoing. No arrests or citations have been reported, and investigators continue to piece together vehicle speeds, lane-change dynamics and ice coverage. What’s clear is that what began as a routine Sunday drive ended in heartbreak for a young family—and a community mourning one of its own.