Chicago woman charged with DUI in Dan Ryan crash that killed toddler, injured 7
By DARRYL HOLLIDAY Staff Reporter / dholliday@suntimes.com June 1, 2011 5:39AM
Updated: June 1, 2011 9:20PM
A South Side woman has been charged with aggravated driving under the influence and reckless homicide in the crash Monday on the Dan Ryan Expressway that killed a toddler and left seven others injured, including three other children.
Joannie Pittman, 47, had a blood-alcohol level of .164 percent — twice the legal limit — when she was tested after she crashed on the southbound Dan Ryan near 75th Street on Memorial Day, Cook County prosecutors said. She was on her way home from a barbecue when the crash occurred at around 6:45 p.m., prosecutors said.
Pittman, 47, was ordered held Wednesday in lieu of $350,000 bail.
Open beer cans were found in Pittman’s car, which struck a guardrail and rolled over, ejecting the children, according to the Illinois State Police.
Everett Bramlett was killed in the crash. He would have turned 1 year old on June 6.
An 8-year-old boy remains in critical condition with a lacerated liver, and a 3-year-old girl and a 4-year-old girl also remain at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, each with a broken skull, according to prosecutors.
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