Drunk Driver Arrested After Driving Head-On At Squad Car: Cops

RIVERSIDE, IL — A Des Plaines woman was arrested for DUI after driving head-on at a marked squad car, police said. Katherine Barretto, 38, was charged with DUI, illegal lane usage and driving in wrong lane.

Police first received a report at 12:25 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 1 of a possible drunk driver driving erratically northbound on First Avenue from I-55. Police said multiple callers told dispatch that the vehicle was all over the road, driving in the middle of the road and cutting people off.

Riverside patrol units were dispatched to check First Avenue near Forest. When the first officer arrived, police said he saw the car traveling northbound in the southbound lanes of First Avenue. The vehicle had crossed the double yellow and drove directly at the fully marked squad car.

Police said the maneuvers of the driver were so egregious that the officer did a U-turn, put on his own lights and sirens and, instead of initially trying to make a traffic stop, he drove ahead with lights and sirens to warn oncoming traffic because the DUI driver was still driving in the wrong lane. The car was eventually stopped at First and 31st Street.

According to police, when the officer approached the vehicle, he could smell alcohol from inside the car. When he asked the driver, identified as Barretto, if she had been using alcohol or drugs, she denied using any illegal substance. However, police said her speech was slurred and she mumbled, her eyes were glassy, she had droopy eyelids, and appeared disoriented. She also did not know where she was when the officer made the traffic stop.

When asked to exit the vehicle, police said Barretto's movements were slow, and she was swaying and stumbling and could barely remain standing. Barretto failed all roadside field sobriety testing, and was taken into custody.

Once in police custody in the booking room, police said Barretto became argumentative and began swearing at officers. She was combative and had to be placed into a cell. For several hours after
the arrest she refused to be processed and was too intoxicated to attempt to book. She was held overnight and released to a responsible adult friend later in the morning, police said.

Through investigation, police also learned that earlier in the evening, the Illinois State Police put out an emergency broadcast over the Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network about a possible drunk driver on I-55 between La Grange and First Avenue. Barretto was the same person that Illinois State Police had broadcast statewide as a possible DUI driver. According to police, she had been called in by other drivers on I-55 and reported as weaving through all the expressway lanes.

“Katherine Barretto drove directly at a fully marked Riverside squad traveling southbound on First. She was traveling northbound in southbound lanes and nearly struck the squad and other motorists," Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said in a release. "She traveled intoxicated from, at least, I-55 and La Grange Road until she was stopped at 31st and First in Riverside. It’s a miracle that she or others were not seriously injured or killed in a crash.”

Photo provided by Riverside Police Department.