A Highland officer remains in stable condition after a head-on car crash last weekend.
Highland Police spokesman Commander George Georgeff said Chief Pete Hojnicki visited Thursday with Officer John Swisher. According to Hojnicki, Georgeff said Swisher “appeared to be doing a bit better” but will “endure several more surgeries.”
Meanwhile, charges are pending against the man who hit Swisher as the Lake County Sheriff’s Department awaits a toxicology report, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Mark Back. Because the crash involved a municipal police officer, the sheriff’s department is handling the case; it’s expecting the report back by early next week.
Swisher, an 11-year member and K-9 handler for the department, was responding to a call heading northbound in the 9100 block of Kennedy Avenue around 12:57 a.m. Dec. 10 when a car heading south crashed into him at a high rate of speed, according to a report. The southbound car went airborne on impact and spun before it landed in a yard, while the front end of Swisher’s car was crushed, according to a witness.
Highland firefighters extricated Swisher from his vehicle, and both men were taken to area hospitals. Swisher was taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake campus in Gary before being airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., where he remains, Georgeff said.
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The condition of the second man is unknown at this time, Back said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.