Stewardson Resident Injured When Cycle Strikes SUV

A Stewardson resident is hospitalized after the motorcycle he was operating struck a SUV Saturday night.

Effingham County Sheriff's Department reports the crash occurred at 6:38pm on Illlinois Routes 32/33 at Nazarene Road, northwest of Effingham.

Deputies say the cycle was being operated by 21-year-old Zackaryah Russell. The cycle rear-ended a SUV operated by 66-year-old Victoria Beals, also of Stewardson. Beals told deputies that a cycle passed her at a high rate of speed, then Russell's cycle struck her vehicle. Russell, who was wearing a helmet, ended up several hundred feet from the point of impact.

Russell was first taken to HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital in Effingham, then was airlifted to Carle Hospital in Urbana.

Beals was not injured.

Russell was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid the crash.