A Chicago woman was allegedly drunk when she drove the wrong way on the Kennedy Expressway early Wednesday morning, clipping two cars before striking a third one, officials said.
Vanessa Castillo, 25, drove her Chrysler Sebring southbound in the northbound lanes from Interstate 90 to Division Avenue, clipping a tractor trailer and a black Mazda before finally crashing head on into a black Nissan Maxima, officials said.
Castillo, of the 3100 block of West 41st Place, was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital. A female driver of the Maxima, identified as 34-year-old Nancy Sandoval of Chicago, was taken to Northwestern Hospital, police said.
Their injuries were described as serious but not-life threatening.
Sandoval was being followed by her husband. The pair take the same route to work each day, but drive separately, he said.
The driver of the tractor trailer was identified as Sarunas Tufaf, 44, also of Chicago. The driver of the Peter Walus, 36, of Grayslake, was driving the Mazda, Illinois State Police said.
Castillo is charged with driving under the influence, driving the wrong way, and failure operating a vehicle without a driver’s license. She'll remain in custody until she is released from the hospital and posts bond, officials said.
Outbound lanes of the Kennedy Expressway were closed at Division as crews cleared the scene. The stretch has since reopened.
The incident marks the fourth Chicago area wrong-way crash in two months.
On Feb. 9, three were injured in a wrong-way crash on Lake Shore Drive. The week before, two people were injured when a driver went the wrong way on I-55 and crashed head-on on the curve toward Lake Shore Drive.
Days before on Jan 30., a driver reportedly intentionally went the wrong way on I-80 and crashed into an oncoming car, killing himself, two of his passengers and another driver.
