The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said that a DUI driver drove more than 50 mph over the speed limit and then crashed into a tree when police tried catching him.
A Lake County Sheriff’s deputy running radar near Guerin Road and O’Plaine Rd in Green Oaks around 9 p.m. Monday noticed a car driving 80 mph in a 30 mph zone.
The vehicle, driven by Gilberto Cuen-Alvarado, 26, of the 3400 block of Ted Avenue in Park City, was driving eastbound on Guerin Road and then quickly turned northbound onto O’Plaine Road, Lake County Sheriff Sgt. Christopher Covelli said.
When the sheriff’s deputy turned onto O’Plaine Road, he saw the vehicle had crashed into a tree just north of Guerin Road. Cuen-Alvarado and the two passengers had fled the vehicle.
Police and a canine unit located Cuen-Alvarado and one of the passengers, a 24-year-old Park City man, in a subdivision east of the crash. Both of the men were cold and wet after they tried running through a swamp to escape police, Covelli said.
The third suspect, a 24-year-old Waukegan man, was found by Illinois State Police near Reigate Lane and Route 137.
Cuen-Alvarado and one of the passengers were transported to area hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries sustained during the crash.
Cuen-Alvarado was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, leaving the scene of an accident, speeding, operating an uninsured vehicle and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. He is scheduled to appear in court on February 27.
Charges against the two passengers in the car are possible, Covelli said.