Woman Arrested for DUI After Wrong-Way Crash on I-94

 Posted on April 05, 2014 in DUI

A woman was arrested for DUI in north suburban Skokie after driving the wrong way on I-94 and crashing her vehicle at around 2:05am, according to Chicago CBS Local. Illinois State Police Sgt. George Jimenez told CBS Local that after the woman crashed her vehicle she must have "gotten turned around," and "began driving north in the southbound lanes." She eventually turned the vehicle around and was driving the correct direction in the southbound lanes, but was pulled over when she exited the expressway. "The female, who was the only occupant of the vehicle, suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene," reports Chicago CBS Local.

According to a publication from the Illinois Center for Transportation, there were 217 wrong way crashes on Illinois freeways between 2004 and 2009. These resulted in 44 deaths and 248 injuries. More than 50 percent of these incidents were caused by drivers, "confirmed to be impaired by alcohol." An additional "5 percent were impaired by drugs, and more than 3 percent had been drinking," according to the report. The number of fatalities nationwide resulting from wrong-way crashes also remains disproportionately high—in 2009, there were more than 900 fatalities caused by wrong-way crashes, as opposed to 420 fatalities on average per year.

According to the Illinois Center for Transportation publication, one reason that wrong-way crashes result in a disproportionate number of fatalities to crashes is due to their severity. "Since wrong-way driving often leads to head-on collisions, wrong-way crashes tend to be more severe when compared to other types of crashes."

California, the report notes, was the first state to pioneer wrong-way driving countermeasures, and found that "Do Not Enter" and "Wrong Way" signs at the entrance to freeways were a successful start. "In California, fatal crash rates dropped from approximately 1.5 per billion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 1965 to 0.5 billion VMT in 1985 due to improvements in traffic signs and pavement markings."

If you or someone you know has been involved in a wrong-way crash as a result of DUI in the greater Chicago area, do not go through it alone. Contact Scott F. Anderson, Attorney at Law, for a free initial consultation today.