A promising young sports broadcaster died Friday after a crash near Fisher when he apparently went into the wrong lane.

Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said Brett Lerner, 21, of Buffalo Grove, a University of Illinois student, died in a two-vehicle crash near Fisher on Friday night.

The two elderly people in the other car have not been identified.

An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday.

Traffic was blocked Friday evening on Illinois 47 at Champaign County 3100 N, west of Fisher.

Police earlier said around 6 p.m. Friday, Mr. Lerner was driving on Route 47 just northwest of Fisher when he entered the other lane of traffic and collided with a vehicle carrying a couple from Carol Stream. The two were taken to the hospital and were in critical condition Saturday morning.

At 2:25 p.m., Illinois public address announcer Gene Honda asked the crowd at Memorial Stadium to stand for a moment of silence in honor of Lerner. With the Illinois football team standing on its home sidelined decked out in its all-gray uniforms and the color guard standing at midfield before the National Anthem was played, silence descended upon the stadium. At the same time, a photo of Lerner on the Memorial Stadium scoreboard was shown, along with a list of organizations he belonged to.

According to his Twitter site, Mr. Lerner has served as a WCIA-3 sports intern, Big Ten Network Student U broadcaster and Illini Drive co-host. His Twitter site said he would graduate from the UI in 2017.

Zeta Beta Tau, 907 S. Fourth St., C, lists the broadcast journalism major as an executive officer.

At the WCIA newsroom, nobody could be reached Saturday afternoon, but its Facebook page said:

“Brett was a member of the WCIA 3 family. He interned in our sports department last summer, and he stayed on this fall to help with our Friday night high school football coverage. Brett was a very bright young man, who had an amazing future ahead of him in the sports broadcasting business. He will be missed.”

