CHICAGO — Thirty months after a driver slammed into the back of an IDOT crew’s truck on the Kennedy Expressway and ran from the scene, leaving three injured workers behind, a woman has been charged in the case.
The work crew, assigned to place cones on the inbound lanes near Harlem, was in their work truck with its lights flashing when a woman driving a gray car slammed into the back of their pickup truck, ABC7 reported after the crash early on New Year’s Eve 2020.
While media reports said the men “suffered non life threatening injuries” and “are expected to be OK,” court records indicate two suffered broken necks, and the third received a concussion.
Latia Johnson, now 25, turned herself in to Illinois State Police troopers five days later with the assistance of an attorney, a Chicago police report said. Investigators allegedly found her ID cards and personal property inside the vehicle that struck the IDOT truck.
Police secured a sample of her DNA in April 2022, and testing matched her with genetic material and fingerprints found inside the car, the police report said. She turned herself in to ISP again on July 13.
According to the Chicago police report, two of the injured men, now 70 and 41 years old, suffered broken necks and permanent nerve damage. The older man also suffered a shattered arm, the report said. A 28-year-old IDOT worker received a concussion.
Johnson is charged with three counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving injury. Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered her to pay a $200 bail deposit to get out of jail.