A passenger in a car involved in a fatal head-on collision remained in critical condition Tuesday, while the driver of the other vehicle has been charged with one count of reckless homicide and four counts of felony driving under the influence of alcohol, police said.
Jason Levitt, 20, of Matteson, a passenger in the car driven by Daren Perozzi, was in critical condition in Columbia Olympia Fields Osteopathic Hospital and Medical Center in Olympia Fields, a hospital spokesman said.
Perozzi, 22, of Olympia Fields was killed Sunday when his vehicle was hit head-on by a car that crossed the median on Interstate Highway 57 near Country Club Hills, police said.
Charged was the driver of the other vehicle, Charles Blue, 30, of 421 Doral Ter., University Park. Police said he was drunk at the time of the crash.
Two other passengers in Perozzi’s car, David Danick, 22, and Andrew Bye, 22, both of Olympia Fields, were treated and released from South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Blue was treated at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn and released Monday, a spokeswoman there said.
Kristine Smit, 32, of Crete, a passenger in Blue’s car, was in fair condition in Christ Hospital with a broken arm and suffering from blunt trauma, a spokeswoman there said.
Perozzi was a recent graduate and honors student, majoring in cellular biology, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was planning on attending medical school, said his father, David Perozzi. He said his son had “dreamed of being a doctor ever since he could talk.”
David Perozzi said the family received a letter Monday from the U. of I. informing Daren that he had made the dean’s list.