The hit-and-run driver who struck two sisters, 7 and 14, on their way to school this week is a Chicago Public Schools teacher who has been charged with driving under the influence, according to police and CPS officials.
Matthew Lucchini, 26, is a physical education teacher at Locke Elementary, about a mile and a half from where the girls were hit Tuesday morning, police and school officials said.
Lucchini is accused of hitting the two girls in a crosswalk in the 3400 block of North Austin Avenue around 8 a.m., according to police. Chicago Academy High School and Chicago Academy Elementary School are on that block.
“I saw my sister laying there on the other side of the street, and I remember I tried to get up, but I couldn’t,” the older girl, Jazmine Oquendo, told WGN-TV. “It was just really scary ’cause I just saw her laying there and I thought she was dead.”
The younger girl, Ava, was taken in serious condition to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, where she was treated for cuts and released, police said. The older girl also was taken to Lutheran General with a minor injury to her ankle.
“I’m glad that they’re alive, breathing and they’re home with us,” said the girls’ mother, Christina Frangos. “I would hate for any other parent to go through this. Being at work, hearing that something happened to your child and you’re not there to comfort them.”
Lucchini left the scene after the accident but was taken into custody a “short distance away,” according to Officer Nicole Trainor, a Chicago police spokeswoman.
Lucchini, of the 2300 block of Remington Drive in Naperville, has been charged with two counts of misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol, one count of misdemeanor leaving the scene, two counts of misdemeanor failure to yield the right of way to pedestrians in a crosswalk and one count of misdemeanor negligent driving.
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Chicago Public Schools said in a statement that it “takes allegations of unlawful activity by its employees very seriously.”