Investigation: One Driver in Willow Road Double Fatality Was Drunk
Major Crash Assistant Team's report revealed Silvia Garcia-Seguar had nearly three times the legal limit of alcohol in her blood stream at the time of the crash.
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One of the drivers in last weekend's double fatality car crash on Willow Road in Northfield had a blood alcohol level that was nearly three times the legal limit, accoding to police.
New details released this afternoon by the Northfield Police Department in cooperation with the Major Crash Assistance Team (MCAT) revealed that Silvia Garcia-Seguar, 22, of Chicago, had a .229 blood alcohol level at the time of the crash. The legal limit in Illinois is .08. The second driver, 63-year-old Soo Hum Shin of Glenview, did not have any alcohol in his system, according to officials.
Using physical evidence from the crash site, officials determined that Garcia-Seguar was driving east between 44 and 62 miles per hour. It’s estimated that Soo was driving between 35 and 45 miles per hour in the opposite direction.
It’s been more than 30 years since Northfield’s stretch of Willow Road has seen a fatal crash, according to Police Chief William Lustig.
That changed April 16 around 8 p.m. when Garcia-Seguar crossed the road’s centerline and hit Shin's Mercedes SUV. The crash occured in the 2220 block of Willow Road.
Garcia-Segura had a Mexican identification card, but no driver’s license, Lustig told Patch. She was removed from her car—after the roof was cut off for access—and transported to Evanston Hospital. Garcia-Seguar was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m., a few hours after the crash, according to a Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office spokesperson.
Shin was also taken to the hospital, where he slipped into a coma and died on April 18. The medical examiner’s office cited cerebral injuries from the accident.
While information regarding alcohol in Garcia-Seguar’s system was available through hospital records, Lustig said he is still waiting for toxicology results from the medical examiner’s office, which may not be available for several weeks.
MCAT works with 13 suburban communities including Glenview, Northfield, Glencoe, Winnetka, Northbrook, Wilmette, Kenilworth and others to document evidence at crash scenes and follow-up with witnesses. Seven members of the MCAT team worked on the Willow Road crash, Detective Bill McGuiness said.
Stay tuned to Patch for updates.
Brett Erik Johnson
8:14 pm on Friday, April 22, 2011
Another drunk speeding around despite not having a drivers license. Sadly, that was extremely common back in the Phoenix area when I lived there. I wish more could be done to keep drunks and illegals off the roadways.
Donna
9:02 pm on Friday, April 22, 2011
Why don't people get it? You drink, you drive, you die! Worse yet... you kill an innocent man whose family is now left to mourn him and wonder why.....
Please think twice before you drink and drive.... No one is invincible....and you don't have the right to take anyone elses life in your hands like this girl did...
Lisa
7:48 am on Saturday, April 23, 2011
patrol the borders! If the person was in mexico where she belongs, the innocent man would be alive. A true tragedy.
Antonio Tapia
8:07 pm on Monday, April 25, 2011
This is not about an undocumented immigrant, this is about another idiot who gets behind the wheel while intoxicated. Xenophobe.
Willy
8:27 pm on Wednesday, April 27, 2011
People who break immigration laws have a tendency to break drunk driving laws. Golly, who would have known? Lisa's comment was perfectly appropriate. Antonio, keep your "xenophobe" comments to yourself.
David Greenberg
5:02 pm on Saturday, April 23, 2011
I'm not trying to diminish the tragedy, but I have to wonder if the outcome would have been different had the roadway been 4 lanes wide instead of two. It certainly could have been better w/o the involvement alcohol (I say 'could' because w/o a driver's license, we have no idea if the person could even drive properly), but given the narrow, curvy nature of that roadway I'm surprised there haven't been more collisions over there...
chris
12:22 pm on Monday, April 25, 2011
That road is needlessly dangerous, it should be widened. I drive it everyday and there are numerous rear end collisions and other incidents related to blind intersections, merges and other poorly designed traffic controls.
On a similar note; I was on my way to Harlem and Irving Mall when I was hit by a woman with a Mexican ID card, no license, no plates and of course no insurance. It should be required that you have a valid US license to buy a vehicle. Insurance should be purchased in full every year with a sticker on the back window. That way the police can pull over people who elect to drive without insurance.
PS: I was stopped at a red light when I was hit by the woman. The Norridge police gave me a ticket for damaging village property cause she hit us so hard it pushed me onto the grass median. The ticket was thrown out, but I still had to go to court, my wife had to go to the hospital, I had to get my car repaired and then get the Secretary Of State to remove the point from my license.
I have been a licensed driver (driving fifty miles per day average) for thirty years and have never had a ticket or accident except for this incident. They let the woman drive to the police station after the accident, she was driving to court (I saw here in the garage) and she still didn't have insurance when she came to court. And she drove home from court afterward.
Annie
12:05 pm on Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Chris, I feel for you. The courts are a big problem as far as I'm concerned. There are laws that should be inforced but are not, especially in court. The judges just shrug off these incompetient people. I was rear ended by an illegal alien years ago. He hit and ran. I menorized the plate number. He was drunk of course but since he was located perhpas 30 mins after the incident, he wasn't ticketed for that. What was really appalling was the fact that the police officer told me to give the guy a break and the fact that he always gave drunk drivers a break. Yikes! It was my first time in traffic court, I thought that the officer would offer up all the information (illegal, rap sheet 2 inches thick, repeat offender many times over, etc.) . Not a peep. First court date, no show. Second, hid until case was called, needed an interpeter. Judge gave him a $50 dollar ticket and told him not to drive home. Yeah, right. They should have taken his 'record' to point and impounded his car. This man needed more than a $50 ticket. His insurance company refused to pay any medical bills. Needless to say, my life became a nightmare due to medical bills and the fact that was in too much pain to work. He had the mininum insurance anyway which took 5 years to settle. I had to sue myself for anything else. For the rest of my life, I have to endure the physcial pain from this auto accident. I am just so thankful however, that I had my seat belt on and didn't go through the windshield.
kshin
2:10 pm on Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Soo Shin is my beloved Father -in-law who passed away so tragically and unexpectedly. He leaves behind a wife, two sons and a 5 month old grandson. He loved his new grandson so much and looked forward to retiring in the next couple of years after working long hours (60+ hours weekly) for the past 40+ years. He was suppose to take my son golfing when he turned old enough and now my precious son won't know his grandfather which is so heartbreaking to me. He was such a loving man to many and he will be missed dearly. We believe in God's sovereignty and faithfulness in our lives and this will continue to sustain our family. We believe that it was in God's timing even though it's so hard to see in the face of this tragedy. We also pray for her family in the wake of this tragedy. She was very young and foolish and her background really does not have to anything to do with her tragic decision to get behind the wheels while intoxicated. I storngly hope the city will revamp that road as well - the road is very dangerous in curves and lack of warning signs esp with the increase in traffic flow.
Donna
3:56 pm on Tuesday, April 26, 2011
kshin... So sorry for your loss, you and your family are in our thoughts and prayers.
Ed60062
9:16 am on Thursday, April 28, 2011
It is foolish to blame the road for this accident. If it were four lanes people would likely drive faster. There are plenty of accidents on four-lane roads. This is simply a case of someone who couldn't care less about laws and other people. She deservedly met her maker; unfortunately she took an innocent man with her.
David Greenberg
11:42 am on Friday, May 13, 2011
I didn't blame it on the road - I posited that IF it were 4 lanes wide, that the accident may not have happened. My thought was that if she were driving in the far right lane, and was weaving between the far right and "near right" lane, then she may not have ever crossed the yellow dividing lines...
I also don't agree that a 4-lane road makes people drive faster...
Regardless, the drunk driver was a fool for doing so - and she shouldn't have been on the road at all...
A Northfield Parent
8:56 am on Thursday, May 12, 2011
Based on the drunk lady's speed & the length of the skids, that accident would have involved many more cars & hurt and/or killed those people, if the road was 4 or 5 lanes. Don't blame ANY aspect of this accident on the road!
David Greenberg
11:50 am on Friday, May 13, 2011
Certainly the aspects of the road could be a consideration in any accident. If there were a raised concrete median she MAY not have gone across it (yes, given enough speed, someone will go right over the ones on the Edens....), or if it were wider, she may have stayed on the right side of the dividing line... If it weren't curved and dark, she may not have gone across the line as well...
Regardless, she was pretty wasted while driving - and drunk driving is a horrible idea to begin with, add in no license and a bad situation is made worse...
The accident notwithstanding, the configuration of that road as stands now is poor. It doesn't have enough capacity to handle the amount of daily traffic, it's curvy and dark... It needs to be widened and improved, and either an underpass or overpass installed to allow pedestrians and children to cross safely...
Ed60062
1:47 pm on Friday, May 13, 2011
True, the road is under-capacity. However, I can understand why the residents don't want a highway cutting through their town.
Perhaps the solution is to divide Northfield into two towns. They could be called Northfield and Southfield. The two towns would be divided by a highway much like Northbrook and Glencoe are divided by I-94. Then everyone would be happy.
Just kidding folks--well, at least half kidding.