Woman, 47, charged with driving drunk after crashing Jeep in Riverside

A 47-year-old woman was charged with driving drunk Thursday night after she crashed into a street light in west suburban Riverside and ran from the scene.

Officers responded at 10:27 p.m. to multiple reports of a hit-and-run crash near the intersection of East Burlington Street and Harlem Avenue, according to Riverside police. When they arrived, officers found a Jeep Patriot on the sidewalk alongside a street light that had had been struck, leaving exposed live wires that were sparking.

A witness then provided officers with a description of a female who jumped out of the Jeep after the crash and ran south on Harlem, police said.

Within a few minutes, officers took Christine Tully into custody when they found her running southbound on 34th Street near Maple Avenue in Berwyn, police said. Tully, who lives in Berwyn, appeared “highly intoxicated,” and may have been injured in the crash. She was treated at the scene by paramedics before being turned over to police.

Tully smelled of alcohol and was swaying side to side and slurring her speech as she spoke to investigators, police said. After admitting she had been drinking at a bar in Berwyn, Tully failed a battery of field sobriety tests and was taken into custody. She later refused to take a breathalyzer test at the Riverside police station, but admitted to an officer that she had been driving drunk.

She also told officers that she would have been able to make it back to her house if they hadn’t “responded so quickly,” police said.

Tully was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving on a sidewalk, hit-and-run and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, police said. She was also cited for several traffic violations.