Ex-convict returning to prison for drunken crash into house
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com September 6, 2012 6:54PM
Downers Grove resident Allison R. Smolinski, 23, has been sentenced to three years in prison, after being convicted of a felony charge of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol in Wheaton. | Courtesy of DuPage County Sheriff's Office
Updated: October 10, 2012 6:19AM
A 23-year-old ex-convict charged in a trio of traffic crashes last winter that culminated with her vehicle smashing through the wall of a house in Wheaton has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Allison R. Smolinski, of Downers Grove, was convicted in DuPage County Circuit Court of a felony charge of aggravated DUI causing great bodily harm, according to court records.
Judge George J. Bakalis on Wednesday imposed the prison term, mandating Smolinski serve at least 85 percent of her sentence, records showed. Bakalis gave Smolinski 240 days of credit toward her sentence for the time she has spent in DuPage County Jail since being arrested.
Records indicated Smolinski will also spend a year on mandatory supervised release following completion of her prison term. Bakalis also ordered her to pay a total of $1,155 in fines and legal fees.
Authorities said a drunken Smolinski on Jan. 10 triggered three traffic crashes in less than an hour while driving a 1997 Nissan Pathfinder sport utility vehicle.
The chain of events began about 4 p.m., when Smolinski caused a hit and run traffic crash in the westbound lanes of Interstate 290 near Addison, police said. No one was hurt in that crash.
Smolinski then got off I-290 at Thorndale Avenue and quickly re-entered the interstate, this time driving east, police said. She eventually drove south on Interstate 355, exiting at Roosevelt Road.
Police said the SUV then caused a crash near Blanchard Street in Wheaton that left an occupant of another vehicle slightly injured. Smolinski then sped onto South Naperville Road.
The SUV ultimately drove off Farnham Lane in Wheaton, hitting a tree and smashing through the exterior living room wall of a house on nearby Huntleigh Drive.
Several occupants of the home were watching television in another room but escaped injury. The house’s exterior natural gas meter was also damaged in the crash.
Police in January said Smolinski was ejected from the SUV during the crash. A 28-year-old Woodridge man who was riding with her had to be extricated from the wreckage and sustained a debilitating head injury.
Smolinski was arrested in May 2007 and charged with burglarizing a home in Elgin. She was sentenced to three years in prison and was paroled in December 2010, according to records.
on file with the Illinois Department of Corrections in Springfield.
