Drunk Driver Hits Car In Riverside Police Parking Lot, Flees The Scene: Police

RIVERSIDE, IL — A Brookfield woman was arrested for DUI after she drove into the Riverside Police Department parking lot, struck a parked car, and fled the scene. Police said Katherine O'Connor, 31, of Brookfield was charged with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to give aid or information after an accident, improper turn, improper lane usage and DUI- alcohol.

Officers were dispatched to the police parking lot at 31 Riverside Road at 6:53 p.m. Sept. 2 after it was reported that a parked vehicle was struck in the lot and the offender had fled the scene. Police said officers were notified the offender's vehicle had headed out of Riverside toward Ogden Avenue. The vehicle was being followed by the victim whose vehicle had been struck and he called 911 to report the location.

According to the release, officers caught up with the vehicle at First Avenue and Plainfield in Lyons. They made contact with the driver, who was identified as O'Connor, and police said there was a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her breath and mouth.

Police said they asked O'Connor if she was aware she had been involved in an accident and she stated she had no idea she had struck anything. The officer then had O'Connor perform the standard field sobriety tests at the scene and she failed all testing. She voluntarily told the officers that she was coming from a wedding and did not have that much to drink and should not be arrested for drunk driving, police said.

According to the release, she was then placed into custody for DUI-alcohol and hit and run. The victim of the hit and run then told police he had seen O'Connor walking near a pedestrian bridge behind the Riverside Police Department. The witness said she then got into her car and began backing out of a spot and struck the victim's vehicle in the police parking lot. The victim tried to get her to stop but she disregarded him and fled the parking lot towards the center of Riverside on East Quincy.

Police said when asked to blow on the breathalyzer, O'Connor was unable to complete the test. When asked what she was doing in the police parking lot, O'Connor said that she had gone there to park her car in order to go to the Des Plaines River and watch the water pass by the footbridge, according to the release.

Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said this was just one of several drunk driving arrests made over the holiday weekend.
"Ms. O'Connor was so intoxicated she drove into a police parking lot, committed a hit and run while she was drunk and then fled the scene. Her intoxication was so severe that she had no idea where she was or even what suburb she was in," he said in a release.

Photo provided by Riverside Police Department.