There was no indication that drinking was involved and Fields was not ticketed for the accident.
The 6-3 Fields, a three-time Associated Press All-State player, was injured early Monday in rural DuPage County when the rental car he was driving swerved to avoid something in the roadway, slid and slammed twice into a guard rail, police said. Fields, whose 19th birthday is Wednesday, was injured in unincorporated DuPage County near the intersection of Route 38 and Interstate 88, said Mary Jo Wiess, a spokeswoman for the DuPage County Sheriff’s Police. Wiess said police did not know how quickly the car was going at the time of the accident. ``We did not feel there was any need at all for a DUI (driving under the influence) test,″ she said. At Farragut on Monday, word spread quickly about the popular player, said assistant administrator Frank Valadez. An acrobatic player with a 40-inch vertical leap, the Farragut senior _ who has been compared to and wears the same No. ``It’s too early to tell,″ Henri said. Fields, who led Farragut High to the Chicago Public League title a year ago, was hospitalized in fair and stable condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, hospital administrator James Henri said. ``They simply want to know what happened, the same that you do,″ he said. The first time Ronnie Fields nearly died in a car accident he was 8 years old. Wiess said Fields was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident and an airbag deployed. He is sure he would have been drafted. Garnett, only 19, has distinguished himself this season with the Minnesota Timberwolves after being the fifth overall selection of the 1995 pro draft.Connect with the definitive source for global and local news Fields broke his neck in a car accident on February 26, 1996, one week before the city playoffs. I was over on TBL thinking about KG finally getting the NBA finals tonight, when suddenly I started wondering: what could have been if his former Farragut teammate Ronnie Fields never got into that car accident..From Wikipedia: Fields had a (reported) 50-inch vertical leap. After undergoing surgery to repair a fractured bone in his neck, he had to wear a protective halo while healing. It was the third time he had been selected for that honor.Fields is one of 22 players selected for the McDonald's All-American game on March 31.The game is to be broadcast live on CBS and will be played at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Ronnie Fields, one of the nation's top high school basketball players, was seriously injured Monday morning in an automobile accident.Fields, who will be 19 on Wednesday, was transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital's spinal injury unit at 7:30 a.m. Monday.His parents requested that no information about his medical condition be released, a hospital spokeswoman said.Fields was driving alone in a Budget Rental car at about 1:15 a.m. when he swerved the 1996 Ford Contour to avoid debris in the road, according to the DuPage County sheriff's office.Fields was westbound in the center lane of Illinois Highway 38 (Roosevelt Road) where it passes under Interstate Highway 88 near He was removed from the car by the Yorkfield Fire Department and transported to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.An Elmhurst Hospital spokeswoman said Fields was transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment of a spinal injury.Fields, a 6-foot 3-inch guard at Farragut High School on the West Side, hopes to attend DePaul University on a scholarship if he qualifies academically.
Ronnie Fields, one of the nation's top high school basketball players, was seriously injured Monday morning in an automobile accident.
The car accident, in which Fields fractured vertebrae in his neck, supposedly taught him he wasn't invulnerable; but his actions said otherwise when he dunked a basketball just six weeks after surgery while still wearing a halo brace. He left high school as the third all-time leading scorer in Chicago Public League history with 2,619 points. In the Nike Best of the Best All-Star game … Because of lower college entrance test scores, he is flirting with the idea of following his former teammate Kevin Garnett and skipping college to go directly into the NBA.
CHICAGO (AP) _ Ronnie Fields, ranked among the nation’s finest high school basketball players, broke a bone in his neck in a car accident early Monday. He left his car and walked to a squad car when police arrived, waiting there for an ambulance, she said.