Woman, 19, charged in DUI crash that left driver paralyzed
BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reporter tsfondeles@suntimes.com April 13, 2013 2:52PM
Erica Gallardo, 19, charged with aggravated DUI in a March 27 crash that left the driver of the car she hit paralyzed.
Updated: April 14, 2013 9:54AM
A 19-year-old Oak Forest woman has been charged with aggravated DUI in a crash last month in Steger that left the driver of a vehicle that she struck paralyzed, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday.
Erica Gallardo, a graduate of Oak Forest High School, was ordered held Saturday on $50,000 bail.
She was arrested at home Thursday.
The crash happened around 5 a.m. March 27 at Steger and Richton roads in Steger. Prosecutors said Gallardo was driving a 2001 Mercury Mountaineer that hit a 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by a 26-year-old Oak Forest man who suffered a spinal injury and broken thigh bone and was left paralyzed from the waist down, authorities said.
Gallardo — whose lawyer would not comment Saturday — was taken to a hospital after the crash and found to have a blood-alcohol level of .117 percent, prosecutors said. A person is presumed under Illinois law to be driving drunk with a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent.
