A 26-year-old Aurora man has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with a fatal Chicago drunk driving accident that killed two of his friends back in 2007, the Examiner reported.
The Balmoral Court man agreed to plea to two counts of aggravated DUI and one count of DUI, according to the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office. He faces between 6 and 28 years in prison at his April sentencing.
The fatal Chicago DUI accident occurred in Aug. 2007. The defendant was driving two of his friends in a Nissan Sentra when he crashed into a tree near Sugar Grove. The two 21-year-old men were killed.
Investigators said the defendant had marijuana in his system at the time of the crash and a blood alcohol level of .01, above the Illinois limit of .08.
Illinois drunk driving fatalities are a primary cause of fatal Illinois traffic crashes. The Illinois Department of Transportation reports that nearly half of fatally injured drivers (including 49 percent of young drivers ages 16 to 24) had a positive blood-alcohol content at the time of the collision.
As reported earlier this month on Chicago Car Accident Lawyers blog, the state of Illinois will spend more than $11 million to combat drunk driving this year.
One-third of all fatal accidents in Illinois involve a drunk driver. The overall goal is to reduce Illinois traffic fatalities to 883 by 2011 from the 1,355 recorded in 2004. Last month, we reported here at Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer blog that the 928 traffic fatalities recorded in 2009 were the lowest in nearly a century of reporting.