February 2012 Archives

David McCarthy admitted to striking and killing Melissa Lech in a hit and run accident three years ago. He was arrested in a bizarre set of circumstances following a hit and run apology when he apparently went to the home of Lech's sister and confessed to the crime over the weekend.

Now a review of McCarthy's driving records show a history of reckless driving previous to killing Lech as well as a drunk driving episode following Lech's death, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. It wasn't reported if McCarthy is suspected of driving under the influence at the time of Lech's death.

In the Michael Ditka DUI, the son of legendary Bears coach Mike Ditka was arrested when he was found asleep inside his car parked at a Deerfield strip mall.

As we wrote earlier, someone can be arrested for a DUI if they simply have control of the car. You do not actually have to be driving to be arrested for drunk driving.

In a weird non-DUI, a 36-year-old Chicago woman was involved in a minor car accident, was visibly drunk, had an open bottle of tequila, and tested for almost four times the legal limit of alcohol. Yet police let her go without a drunk driving charge.

The would-be suburban Bridgeview DUI started when the unidentified woman was involved in a car crash at 79th Street and Harlem Avenue, reports CBS. The first police officer who responded to the scene allegedly smelled alcohol on the woman's breath and had the woman undergo a series of field sobriety tests. She failed them.

There is no more frightening scenario while driving down the highway than to have another car coming at you head-on at high speeds. This is especially scary when the other driver is drunk and there is no defensive driving technique that you can take to avoid a potentially deadly collision.

What makes this scenario horrifying for most Chicago drivers is that this type of DUI accident seems to happen on almost a daily basis. In the most recent Chicago wrong way accident, a young woman, Vanessa Castillo, was arrested after striking several cars while going the wrong way on the Kennedy Expressway before crashing head-on with another vehicle.

Charles Kimbrough was killed as he and a co-worker were unloading a beer truck in the Morgan Park neighborhood of the Far South Side. At about three in the afternoon, Kimbrough was doing his job on the 1400 block of West 115th Street when a drunk driver in an SUV struck another car, setting off a chain of events that led to Kimbrough’s death.

Walter Thompson, a 30-year-man from Blue Island was driving on a suspended license when he allegedly decided to drive drunk too, reports the Chicago Tribune. As he drove, Thompson lost control of his car and struck a mini-van. The mini-van then hit Kimbrough and pinned him against a city bus that had stopped to pick up passengers.

The man convicted of killing four teenagers in a tragic Aurora DUI crash 15 years ago was arrested again on Monday, reports CBS Chicago. This time, however, he was arrested on suspicion of committing domestic violence.

Randy Visor served one-third of his 13-year-prison sentence for causing the 1997 drunk driving crash that killed three Waubonsie Valley High School students - Jenni Anderson, Allison Matzdorf and Jennifer Roberts - and 27-year-old passenger Ana Pryor. The 16-year-old girls were reportedly on their way back from homecoming preparations.

Former Bears Coach Mike Ditka’s son, Michael P. Ditka, has already won a significant ruling in his DUI case, and it hasn’t even gone to trial yet. Lake County Circuit Court Judge Brian Hughes reportedly ruled that evidence gathered after his DUI arrest cannot be used against him in trial, reports CBS Chicago.

The younger Ditka was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after police discovered him sitting in a black Hummer in the parking lot of his housing complex in April 2011. Officers claim they detected the smell of alcohol, and Ditka’s blood-alcohol content was found to be at 0.189 percent, more than twice the legal limit, according to CBS.

It used to be that drinking and driving was dangerous because cars could swerve into your lane or drive at excessive speeds, creating hazards. However, this past month, the disturbing trend in Chicago DUI has been the driver going the wrong way down the highway, colliding with other cars.

This week, there were two wrong way driver accidents in or near Chicago, reports the Chicago Tribune. On Monday, four men died when 28-year-old Gustavo Vargas decided to make a U-turn while driving down Interstate 80 and crashed into another car. Vargas and his buddies had been out drinking, and he allegedly taunted his friends with “You guys ready to die? You guys ready to die?” before going on his suicide mission.

Police were called to the Brick’s Sports Bar and Grill following a complaint at about 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. When the cops got there, they were barred from entering, and the patrons inside were barred from leaving.

The doors eventually opened and about 300 patrons flowed out of a bar with a maximum capacity for 99, reports ABC. Chaos ensued, capped off with the Brick’s Sports Bar DUI.

A Stevenson Expressway accident resulted in DUI charges last week. Early Friday morning, police began receiving calls that an SUV was traveling the wrong way down the Stevenson Expressway at very high speeds. Within minutes after the initial call, police learned that the SUV had crashed into another car on a ramp to Lake Shore Drive.

Luckily no one was killed in the accident, though both drivers did suffer serious to critical injuries. The driver of the SUV, 23-year-old Rakesh Baker, has been charged with driving under the influence, driving the wrong way down the highway, failure to reduce speed, and operating a vehicle without insurance, reports the Chicago Tribune.

On Tuesday night, a Chicago fire truck accident was reported as the truck headed to a call in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side. As Engine Number 62 approached an intersection at Halsted and 128th streets, another car appeared to stop to let the firetruck pass.

After stopping, the car then inexplicably sped up into the fire truck’s path. The fire truck was unable to stop in time and broad-sided the car. Ten people were hurt in the accident including three children and four firefighters, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Nicholas Sord is accused of a fatal DUI that killed his girlfriend Jessica Mejia. Sord, the 23-year-old son of Southland entrepreneur Bryan Sord, was allegedly drinking and on opiates at the time of the accident. He faces aggravated driving under the influence and reckless homicide charges.

On January 1, 2010, Sord and Mejia were apparently celebrating the New Year and went to several bars. It’s not clear if Sord was drunk on alcohol, but at the time of the accident he was also taking opiates. It’s alleged that this combination of drugs and alcohol contributed to the crash that killed Mejia, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

This weekend's Chicago DUI may be more memorable for what happened after the arrest than what led up to the arrest.

Santa Ana Zuloaga-Campuzano was found asleep inside his Ford Expedition which was parked on a median on 115th Street at South Doty Avenue in the Riverdale neighborhood, reports the Chicago Tribune. When police woke him up, they found that he was surrounded by empty beer cans. When asked what he was doing, the 30-year-old gave the somewhat responsible answer that he was too drunk to drive and decided to pull over so that he would not be a danger to anybody.