Drunk driver gets stuck on railroad tracks in Riverside

A drunk driver was arrested after getting stuck on railroad tracks early Sunday in west suburban Riverside.

Jacqueline A. Gonzales, 29, of Chicago, was charged with drunk driving, driving in the wrong lane, driving on the sidewalk, and several other traffic violations after she drove onto a railroad track thinking it was a roadway, according to Riverside police.

An officer spotted a vehicle struck on the Burlington-Northern Sante Fe railroad tracks, where the gates had lowered and red lights were flashing, at 3:14 a.m. about 100 feet east of the crossing on Longman Road, according to Riverside police.

The officer approached the vehicle and pulled 29-year-old Chicago resident Jacqueline A. Gonzales out of the vehicle. The officer said Gonzales was extremely intoxicated and combative, police said.

It was learned that no train was approaching at the time, but that Gonzales drove over a part of the tracks that triggered the signal of an upcoming train, police said.

Gonzales, of the 2800 block of East 91st Street, told the officer that she had been drinking most of the night on the North Side and was driving home to the South Side. She told the officer she thought the railroad was a roadway and that she was in Hammond, Ind., police said.

No permanent damage to the railroad was reported, police said.

Police said Gonzales continued to be combative and swore and spit at the arresting officer at the station.

Gonzales was released on bail, police said.