Charges filed in fatal December DUI accident

 Posted on December 00,0000 in Drunk Driving Accidents

A fatal accident that took place late last year in Chicago is making headlines once again. Law enforcement finally pressed charges against the 18-year-old driver involved in the accident. The charges include reckless homicide with a vehicle and aggravated DUI. The driver was released on a personal recognizance bond in the amount of $350,000. The judge who ordered the bond also called for the driver to be placed on electronic monitoring.

The victim of the accident was also 18 years old. According to police reports, the defendant driver in this case was speeding around S. South Chicago Avenue. Witnesses saw the driver speed through two different green traffic lights and one saw him drive through a red light. The teen driver was apparently trying to following his cousin who was in a second car. The teenager swerved around another car at some point and crashed into a light pole. A passenger was thrown from the car on impact and subsequently died at a local hospital.

The defendant driver was also transported to a hospital and searched. Officers found marijuana on his person. A DUI test was administered and the teenager also tested positive for marijuana use. The driver even confessed that he had been smoking marijuana earlier in the day.

The attorney for the young driver said that his client was a local high school student with plans to start college after graduation.

It is too early to say what will become of this driver and the charges that stem from the DUI accident. But in addition to criminal charges in a drunk driving accident or accident that is the result of an impaired driver, families of victims can file a civil lawsuit against the driver as well. These families do not need to wait for the conclusion of any criminal case but can pursue the case independently. Although a civil suit will never bring back a lost loved one, families may find healing through an award of damages and a sense that justice was served.

Source: Chicago Tribune, "Teen released, put on electronic monitoring in fatal crash," Deanese Williams-Harris, April 15, 2014