A woman was drunk when she hit and killed a pedestrian on the Northwest Side while driving a friend home from a birthday party over the weekend, prosecutors said Monday.
Bertha Saaverda-Velazquez, 29, has been charged with aggravated driving under the influence involving a death and was ordered held on $40,000 bail at a hearing before Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr.
Saaverda-Velazquez left the birthday party around about 1:40 a.m. Sunday and hit Brenda Shrader, 55, as Shrader was crossing the street after parking her car in the 5900 block of North Jersey Avenue in the Hollywood Park neighborhood, according to Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Jamie Santini.
Shrader flew onto the hood of Saaverda-Velazquez’s car and smashed the windshield, prosecutors said.
Saaverda-Velazquez stopped her car, checked on Shrader and called 911, prosecutors said. When police arrived, Saaverda-Velazquez told the officers she hadn’t seen Shrader before hitting her.
Shrader was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:52 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, correcting earlier information from prosecutors that she was pronounced dead at a hospital. She lived in the 4800 block of West Warwick Avenue.
A Breathalyzer test found Saaverda-Velazquez’s blood-alcohol level was .113. Blood-alcohol information from blood drawn from her after the crash was not yet available Monday, prosecutors said.
Her defense attorney said Saaverda-Velazquez graduated from Clemente High School in 2007. She has recently done temp work at a warehouse and acts as a babysitter for her sister’s two children, her attorney said.
Lyke ordered Saaverda-Velazquez, of the 5400 block of West Wrightwood Avenue, to be placed on electronic monitoring if she is released on bond.
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