The Melrose Park teenager accused of being drunk at the wheel during a weekend crash in Oak Park that killed his father was driving on a learner’s permit, officials said Monday.
Eric Gomez, 17, of the 1500 block of 16th Avenue had been drinking with his father at a home before the Saturday night crash, said Oak Park spokesman David Powers. Gomez was charged with reckless homicide and three counts of aggravated DUI. Agustin Gomez, 48, was a passenger in the sport-utility vehicle and died in the crash.
A Cook County judge ordered Gomez held in lieu of $40,000 bail Monday, which Powers said Gomez was expected to post. Powers said the younger Gomez had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16 — twice the adult legal limit.
The father and son were traveling west on Roosevelt Road in a 1998 Ford Explorer that turned at a high speed north onto Cuyler Avenue when the driver lost control, police said. The vehicle went over a curb, struck two houses and a tree in the 1100 block of Cuyler, then rolled onto its roof at Cuyler and Fillmore Street.
Agustin Gomez was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood on Saturday night, authorities said. Eric Gomez was treated for minor injuries.
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