A Highland police officer remains in critical condition at a Chicago-area hospital after a car hit him head-on early Saturday morning.
Officer John Swisher, an 11-year veteran of the department and a K-9 handler, was responding to a call and heading northbound in the 9100 block of Kennedy Avenue around 12:57 a.m., Highland police spokesman Cmdr. George Georgeff said Saturday. A car heading southbound crashed into him at a high rate of speed.
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Highland firefighters extricated Swisher from his vehicle. Swisher was taken to Methodist Hospitals Southlake campus in Merrillville before getting airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., Georgeff said.
The other driver, whose name has not been released, also was rushed to an area hospital.
Cody Kinley, of Highland, said he saw the crash happen on his way home.
“I was heading north on Kennedy in the right-hand lane and was at the street where you turn off to go (to Highland High School), and I saw a car swerving in and out coming in the other direction,” Kinley said. “He had to have been going 50 miles an hour.”
Kinley said he noticed a police car in the left lane about 30 yards or so behind him before looking up and seeing the driver coming toward him.
“The car (heading southbound) swerved and just missed me by about a foot,” Kinley said. “But based on the direction he was heading, I knew the officer was going to get hit.”
Kinley said he watched the collision in his rearview mirror: The southbound car caught wind and spun in the air before it landed in a yard, while Swisher’s front end was “crushed like an accordion.”
Kinley said he turned his car around immediately and blocked southbound Kennedy to prevent other cars from coming up, while another driver did the same as Kinley called 911. When first-responders arrived, Kinley accompanied another Highland officer to Swisher’s car, he said.
Swisher appeared to be unconscious, Kinley said.
Kinley said the first-responders on the scene worked “incredibly fast” and had the situation under control within minutes.
“They were honestly unbelievable. I have to give them credit,” he said.
Lake County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Mark Back said Saturday that its department is leading the investigation.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.