CHICAGO (AP) — The mother of a Chicago Ridge police officer killed in a 2015 crash with an intoxicated, wrong-way motorist is pushing for legislation that would increase penalties for people convicted in such crashes.
The Daily Southtown reports Lisa Smith is supporting a bill in the Illinois Legislature to allow judges to impose a harsher sentence in an impaired driving case if the motorist was driving against traffic.
Smith says the 22-year-old Bristol woman found criminally responsible in her son Steven Smith’s death recently received a five-year sentence — a sentence she calls “a slap in the face.”
Under current state statute, impaired drivers who kill someone are subject to a sentence of three to 14 years behind bars, but a judge can impose probation in “extraordinary circumstances.”
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
