The Illinois State Police is asking the public — and especially anyone with dashcam video — for help identifying the driver who struck a person standing on the shoulder of Interstate 80 in New Lenox and fled, leaving the victim with serious, life-threatening injuries. In an appeal issued on Saturday, November 7, the Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 1 said the hit-and-run happened in the early hours of Sunday, November 1, on the eastbound lanes of I-80 at Maple Road, in Will County southwest of Chicago.
According to the State Police, the sequence began with an ordinary two-vehicle property-damage crash on eastbound I-80 between 3:10 a.m. and 3:19 a.m. A passenger got out of one of the vehicles involved and stood on the right shoulder to assess the damage. While that passenger was outside the vehicle, a passing vehicle struck them and fled the scene. The striking vehicle is described only as a white, silver or black sedan — investigators have not released a make, model or plate information.
What the first response looked like
State Police Troop 3 responded to the eastbound interstate at Maple Road at about 3:19 a.m., early local reporting of the crash said. Eastbound lanes were diverted onto northbound Interstate 355 while troopers worked the scene, and all lanes did not reopen until 8:50 a.m. — more than five hours later. No charges had been announced at that stage, and the injured passenger has not been named. The State Police has not released an updated condition for the victim in either the initial response or Saturday's appeal.
Source: Accident News, 'Person Injured in Mokena Car Accident' (I-80 at Maple Road), Nov. 3, 2026
That the appeal now comes from the Division of Criminal Investigation — the State Police's investigative arm, Zone 1 — rather than the patrol troop alone underlines how the case is being handled: a serious-injury hit-and-run investigation that has gone six days without an identified driver, and one in which a nine-minute slice of overnight traffic is the evidence investigators are missing.
Why the shoulder is the most dangerous place on the interstate
Interstate 80 is one of America's great east–west freight arteries, running from the New York City area to San Francisco and carrying heavy semi-truck traffic through Will County, whose Joliet–New Lenox corridor is one of the largest inland freight and warehousing hubs in the country. At 3 a.m. the traffic is thinner but faster and dominated by trucks, and a person standing on the right shoulder — outside a vehicle, in the dark, steps from live lanes — is in one of the most exposed positions on the road system. Safety officials in Illinois and elsewhere repeat the same advice after crashes of this kind: if a minor crash leaves your vehicle drivable, move it as far off the travelled lanes as possible; if you must get out, get behind a guardrail or well away from traffic, keep hazard lights on, and call 911 rather than standing beside the vehicle exchanging information in the dark.
I-80 through Will County is a route many Punjabi truck drivers run weekly between Chicago-area warehouses, the Midwest and both coasts. If you were eastbound on I-80 near Maple Road, New Lenox, between 3:10 and 3:19 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, check your dashcam before the footage is overwritten — a sedan's colour, damage or plate in a single clip could be the lead Zone 1 investigators are asking for. Tips can be anonymous.
How to pass information to investigators
Anyone with information about the crash, or dashcam video from that stretch and time window, is asked to contact Illinois State Police Zone 1 at (847) 294-4400 or email ISP.CrimeTips@Illinois.gov. Witnesses can remain anonymous, the department said.
What happens next
Investigators will be working the narrow window — 3:10 to 3:19 a.m. — against toll, camera and dashcam records and any repair-shop or parts enquiries that match a sedan with fresh front-end damage. Leaving the scene of a crash involving serious injury is a felony under Illinois law, and the charge exposure grows sharply if the victim's injuries prove fatal. For now, the State Police has released no suspect name, no arrest and no update on the victim's condition; the next development in this case will most likely come from a member of the public who was on that road, in the dark, in those nine minutes.