Woman charged with DUI after dashcam records her driving on wrong side of road

Katherine J. Barretto | Riverside police

A woman is facing DUI charges after a police dashcam recorded her driving on the wrong side of the road early Saturday in west suburban Riverside.

Authorities received calls at 12:25 a.m. about a motorist driving erratically on northbound First Avenue from I-55, according to a statement from Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel. The first officer to arrive in the area spotted the 2013 Nissan driving north in the southbound lanes of First Avenue.

“The vehicle had crossed the double yellow and drove directly at the fully marked squad car,” Weitzel said in the statement.

Police released a video from the squad car’s dashcam that shows a car rounding a curve on the wrong side of the yellow centerline toward the officer.

The officer turned on his squad car’s lights and siren, made a U-turn and stopped the Nissan at First Avenue and 31st Street, according to Weitzel. The officer could smell alcohol from inside the car when he approached it.

The same vehicle had previously been reported to Illinois State Police as a possible drunken driver on the Stevenson Expressway near La Grange Road, according to police.

The driver, 38-year-old Katherine Barretto of Des Plaines, “denied using any illegal substance,” but her speech was slurred and her eyes were glassy, Weitzel said. She failed a roadside sobriety test and was taken into custody and charged with DUI, illegal lane usage and driving in the wrong lane.

She became combative at the police station an “was too intoxicated to attempt to book.,” Weitzel said. She was held overnight, posted bond and was “released to a responsible adult friend later in the morning.”