AURORA, Ill. (AP) - Police say a 31-year-old woman was driving home from a party when she crashed her car into a suburban Chicago retention pond early Sunday, leaving a 6-year-old boy who had to be rescued from the water in critical condition.
Aurora police say the driver and three other females, ages 21, 15 and 12, who were in the Nissan Xterra were able to escape after the SUV entered the pond, but the boy could not.
Members of the Aurora Fire Department Dive Team found the boy in about 15 feet of water, roughly 80 feet from shore. They believe he was in the water for about 30 minutes.
The driver and the boy are related and are from the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Police say they were returning home from a party in Aurora along with the other females around 2:40 a.m. Sunday when the driver lost control of the vehicle while exiting Interstate 88 at Diehl Road, near Eola Road.
At least some of the females also are related, though police didn’t identify anyone or their relationships.
Authorities say they believe alcohol was a factor in the crash. Rainy, stormy weather also may have been a factor, they said.
The boy was taken to an Aurora hospital in critical condition. He was later transported to a Chicago hospital, police said.
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This story has been corrected to show there were three other females in the vehicle in addition to the driver, not four.
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