Lyman B. Harvey was drunk and arguing with his girlfriend on Friday when he crashed into the median on the northbound Dan Ryan Expressway near U.S. Cellular Field, prosecutors said.
Harvey’s girlfriend, Chalan V. Peterson, 29, was killed in the crash.
Her 2-year-old son, who was in the back seat, was not critically injured.
Harvey, 35, whose blood alcohol content was .135 — well over the legal limit of .08 — told police after the crash happened about 12:30 a.m. that he drank a few beers earlier that evening at a Thanksgiving party, prosecutors said Sunday.
According to court documents, Harvey told police that what began as an argument between the couple turned into a physical altercation when Peterson took off her seat belt and struck Harvey on the right side of his head. She then grabbed the steering wheel, causing the vehicle to swerve right. Harvey told police he attempted to regain control but swerved too hard left and crashed.
Harvey, of the 5400 block of South Laflin Street, was charged with aggravated driving under the influence in a fatal accident and reckless homicide with a motor vehicle. Harvey was not seriously injured.
Peterson suffered a lacerated liver and other abdominal injuries and was pronounced dead hours later.
Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Harvey held on $200,000 bail.
