SUV hits car, restaurant in Edgewater after running red light, police say

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A sport-utility vehicle slammed into a diner in the Edgewater neighborhood Saturday evening.

At 6:56 p.m., police were called to Alexander's Restaurant, at 6158 N. Clark St. at the southwest corner of the intersection with Granville Avenue, after an SUV plowed right into it.

A man had been driving the SUV south on Clark Street and ran a red light, police said. He first hit a silver sedan that was headed west on Granville Avenue, and then came to a stop upon hitting Alexander's Restaurant—which was closed at the time, police said.

Neither the driver of the SUV nor the driver of the car he hit were injured, police said. The driver of the SUV was issued traffic citations, according to police.

Alexander's Restaurant has been in operation since the early 1960s, and head chef Luis Mizhquiri has been on board since the late 1980s, according to the restaurant. In addition to the Clark Street

The crash Saturday evening was the second of two crashes with very similar circumstances involved on Clark Street on the city's North Side in just the past week.

This past Sunday night at 9:48 p.m., a Lexus RX300 SUV was headed north on Clark Street when he ran a red light at Montrose Avenue—and likewise hit a car traveling west on that east-west street, police said at the time.

The driver of the SUV in the earlier crash also then plowed into a restauran t—Anna Maria Pasteria at 4400 N. Clark St. The driver of the SUV in the earlier crash was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for neck and back pain, and was ticketed, police said.