Driver charged with DUI after causing multiple crashes, injuries during Lake County, Illinois police chase
A driver is facing multiple charges, including DUI, after leading Lake County, Illinois, police on a chase that caused multiple crashes along the way, according to law enforcement.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office said they were called at about 5:50 p.m. Tuesday about two hit-and-run crashes involving a suspected impair driver near Grandwood Park in unincorporated Gurnee.
The first crash was reported near a gas station in the 36000 block of Grandwood Drive in unincorporated Gurnee. The drive took off, then hit a second vehicle in the gas station parking lot, then sped off again, police said.
Witnesses told police the man driving the car appeared to be bleeding and was driving erratically.
Law enforcement found the car and tried to pull it over, but police said he refused to stop and was driving recklessly as he fled. The sheriff's office said he side-swiped two vehicles at the intersection of Stearns School Road and Hunt Club Road. One of the drivers suffered minor injuries.
The driver got caught in traffic on Hunt Club Road and Grand Avenue and police again tried to stop him, even trying to get into the car, but traffic began to clear and the driver took off again, police said.
The chase continued east and then south on Route 21, and as Lake County sheriff deputies tried to deploy spike strips, police said the driver ran a red light at Route 21 and Gages Lake Road and t-boned a car turning left.
There were four people in that car, including two children, law enforcement said. They were injured, but none of those injuries are believed to be life-threatening.
The crash sent the suspect's car into another vehicle driving north, causing that driver to be hurt as well.
The suspect's car continue rolling southbound until a Lake County deputy was able to stop it with their own squad car.
The driver was taken into custody. He has been identified as Reno Giangiorgi, 34, of unincorporated Gurnee and is charged with aggravated DUI, two counts of aggravated fleeing and eluding, and multiple traffic infractions.
Giangiorgi was taken, along with the other people injured in the crashes, to a local hospital for treatment. He was in the Lake County Jail awaiting his first court appearance Wednesday morning, at which time prosecutors will ask for him to be held in custody.
Lake County law enforcement said one of the children injured in the crashes remains hospitalized but is improving.
