March 05--Two cars were drag-racing before they crashed through a fence in New Lenox Township over the weekend, killing two people and injuring three others as a crude oil pipeline exploded into flames, officials said today.
People in the Mustang and Chevrolet SUV "did make statements regarding 'racing one another' and 'driving at a high rate of speed,' " said Will County spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer.
The crash happened about 2 a.m. Saturday at Moni and South Center drives in an unincorporated area near New Lenox. One of the cars, carrying two men, and the other car carrying three others drove through a chain-link fence and hit the Enbridge Pipeline near Moni Road, officials said.
Two of the survivors remained at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood on Monday, according to New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann. Their conditions were not immediately available. The other survivor was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox and released, he said.
Baldermann said the industrial area is known as a place for drag racers.
When the cars crashed through the fence protecting the Enbridge pipeline, an above-ground "appurtenance" that allows workers to insert tools into the pipeline was hit, Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said. "Because it's psychically connected, it caused the release of oil," he said.
Springer said the area that was struck is more than 100 feet from the road.
He said crews are working to repair the line and it should be operational by Thursday. He said the line carries at least 317,000 barrels of oil a day between Superior, Wis. and Griffith, Ind.
Springer said it could not yet be determined how much oil had spilled. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has determined "there is no visible oil in the storm sewers and there is no evidence that off site properties have been impacted," agency spokeswoman Maggie Carson said.
"The footprint of the released materials appears to have remained on Enbridge property," she said.
The Will County coroner this afternoon still had not identified the two men killed. But relatives have identified them as Bart Lenz and Zachary Orel, a firefighter in Posen.
"He was very close to his family and wore his heart and emotions on his sleeve," Orel's family said in a statement. "He was a true leader in this family, who inspired all to strive for the best and take every opportunity in life."
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