Woman charged with DUI after crash with Lake County squad car

SUN TIMES MEDIA WIRE - A woman has been charged with DUI after she allegedly crashed a car into a Lake County sheriff’s squad car that was blocking off the scene of a crash early Friday in north suburban Mettawa.

Just after midnight, deputies parked their squad cars in the road to protect the tow truck driver and the occupants of the vehicles involved in an earlier crash on Route 60 at Riverwoods Boulevard in Mettawa, according to a statement from the Lake County sheriff’s office.

The deputies noticed a Kia Spectra driving quickly in the eastbound lane toward the scene, the sheriff’s office said. They were able to move out of the way before the car struck one of the squad cars then hit one of the vehicles involved in the previous crash.

The driver of the Kia, 27-year-old Lauren R. Kimbrell, was found to be driving under the influence of alcohol and also had an open container of alcohol inside her car, the sheriff’s office said.

Kimbrell, of the 500 block of Westmoreland Avenue in Waukegan, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and several traffic offenses, including illegal transportation of alcohol and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, according to the sheriff’s office.

She was scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 1.