An impromptu memorial continued to grow Monday afternoon at the site of a horrific Sunday night car crash in Glenview that took the life of a 17-year-old Glenbrook South High School senior and sent three others to hospital, authorities said.
Marko Niketic, 17, a senior at Glenbrook South High School (GBS) in Glenview, was killed in the two-vehicle crash in the 1200 block of East Lake Avenue just after 11 p.m. on Sunday, Glenview police said.
They said Niketic was pronounced dead at the scene, only a short distance from his home. The Glenview Fire Department transported two other individuals to Lutheran General Hospital in critical condition and the driver of the second vehicle, a Mustang, to Evanston Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“Everybody’s still getting their medical care,” Glenview police Sgt. Carly Gaba said Monday. “We don’t have much information at this time on the cause of the crash.”
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She said the crash remains under investigation by the Glenview police department with assistance from the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force’s Major Crash Assistance Team.
Witnesses described a high-speed collision in which a Mustang crashed into Niketic’s late model Mercedes with such force it split Niketic’s car in half. Police have not released the name of the other driver or which vehicle the injured were in.
East Lake Avenue was shut down in both directions from Wagner Road to Waukegan Road in the hours after the crash but has since reopened.
On Monday, an impromptu memorial consisting of flowers and others items continued to grow near the crash site.
“We are sorry to inform you that GBS senior Marko Niketic tragically passed away in an accident that occurred last night,” GBS principal Barbara Georges said in a letter to students and families. “At this time, we are respecting the family’s need for privacy as they process their loss.”
“Death can be difficult for us to understand, especially when it is sudden,” the letter says.” Today, students may feel shock, sadness, or confusion. What is most important is that we care for and support each other.”
It went on to say that the GBS student services team is responding to the “emotional needs of all students and staff” by making student services personnel available and that students may drop into the student services department at any time or also visit the Glenbrook Health Center and speak with their social worker.
“Our thoughts are with the Niketic family and the entire GBS community during this difficult time,” the letter says.
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. baiduhai reporter Avani Kalra contributed to this story.