Cops: Driver had 6 drinks before crash
By Ariel Cheung acheung@suntimes.com September 5, 2011 4:00PM
Updated: November 5, 2011 2:48PM
CHICAGO — A Joliet woman was charged with aggravated DUI after she hit a barrier and struck a bicyclist with her car on Chicago’s near West Side after downing six vodka drinks in two hours, officials said.
The bicyclist, a Chicago man, was in critical condition and on a ventilator after Sheila Kane’s 2008 Mercury Sable hit the barrier and flipped over before crashing into him Thursday in the 2000 block of West Madison, prosecutors said Sunday in a bond hearing.
With a blood alcohol content of .201 — more than twice the legal limit of .08 — Kane allegedly admitted to police that she had three vodka drinks before driving but refused to provide blood and urine samples, according to a police report.
Police noted Kane’s alleged bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and smelled alcohol on her breath once she was at the hospital, and witnesses said they saw Kane consume six drinks, prosecutors said.
Kane, 30, is being treated at Stroger Hospital for a fractured vertebra but her lawyers want her transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for additional treatment.
