When you mix alcohol and driving, you can get yourself in a lot of crazy situations. Some of these situations can lead to serious trouble for the driver. After an Illinois drunk driving suspect crashed his car, he proved that point in an ironic sort of way.
The man from Naperville, Illinois was driving when in the early morning hours when he took a curve and smashed right into a fire hydrant. By coincidence the crash was witnessed by a group of fire fighters who were heading back to the station. Police called to the scene found a drunk driver with open alcohol inside the vehicle.
Unfortunately for this drunk driver, it wasn’t the first time he made the choice to get behind the wheel drunk. This was his second Illinois drunk driving charge in two months. He’s now been charged with felony aggravated DUI, driving with a suspended license, and open alcohol.
With two drunk driving charges within two months, this offender is going to see his fair share of drunk driving penalties. As a first offender he would have received a one year driver’s license suspension, a maximum fine of $2,500, and if he were approved for a Monitored Device Driving Permit (MDDP), would have able to install an ignition interlock device during his time of suspension.
Because he ignored his driver’s license suspension and drove drunk again, he’s no longer a first offender. That means he’s more likely to receive, at a minimum, a driver’s license suspension of five years, mandatory jail time or community service, and maximum fines of $2,500.
It’s not every day you crash your vehicle into a fire hydrant in front of a group of fire fighters, but maybe that crash was the wakeup call this offender needed to finally stop making the choice to drink and drive.