Identity Released for Bicyclist Killed in Crash with Amazon Van
John Kezdy was ID’d as the biker killed in a Glencoe crash near South Avenue and Sheridan Road (ABC 7 Chicago). YouTube Tips ⓘ
Police, firefighters, and paramedics from the Glencoe Department of Public Safety responded about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, August 23, 2023 to a report of crash involving a bicycle and a delivery van with Amazon markings on Sheridan Road near South Avenue in Glencoe.
The male bicyclist, identified as John Kezdy, age 64 of Highland Park, was treated with Advanced Life Support measures and transported to Level 1 Trauma Center Evanston Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. He died three days after the crash on August 26, 2023.
The initial investigation indicated that Kezdy was traveling northbound on Sheridan Road when he crashed into the back of a Dodge Ram ProMaster that was stopped in a bike lane at the northbound curb. There is a very narrow bike lane on each side of Sheridan Road in the area, and the width of Sheridan Road is also narrow. The crash scene was located on a curve, which was a right-hand turn for northbound traffic. The Speed Limit is 30 MPH with a 20 MPH School Zone Speed Limit nearby.
North Regional Major Crimes Task Force (NORTAF) Major Crash Assistance Team (MCAT) was on scene investigating the crash for several hours.
A little over a year ago, John Kezdy was wounded in the elbow during the mass shooting at the Highland Park 4th of July Parade in 2022. Seven people were killed and a total of 48 people were injured at the mass shooting.
Kezdy tried cases or litigated matters in many Illinois counties before he stepped down as Chief of the Statewide Grand Jury Bureau in July 2022. Kezdy continued to work for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General into retirement.
Before Kezdy earned his B.A. in English from Northwestern University in 1988 and his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in 1991, he was frontman/vocalist for the punk band The Effigies in the 1980s, during which he toured the U.S. and Canada in a van and contributed to several record albums. His younger brother, the late Pierre Kezdy, was bassist for the Naked Raygun. Pierre died of cancer on October 9, 2020.
Kezdy’s first job out of law school was with the State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s drug unit where he handled drug felonies and civil drug asset forfeitures in three downstate counties. In 1996 he was hired by the Office of the Illinois Attorney General to prosecute cases with the Statewide Grand Jury Bureau, he became the Chief of the Bureau in 2004.
Kezdy graduated from Evanston Township High School and attended University of Wisconsin.
Kezdy was born in Belgium in 1959, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1962 with his parents.
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