DUI Driver Didn't Know She Was on Railroad Tracks: Police

Riverside, IL - A woman who faces a drunken driving charge told police she didn't know she was driving on railroad tracks after an officer chased her down around 1:30 a.m. April 1 in Riverside.

Amanda G. Phillips, 29 of the 500 block of E. Briarcliff in Bolingbrook, is charged with improper turning, trespassing on railroad property, no proof of insurance, stopped on railroad when traffic was obstructed and DUI, according to Riverside police.

A Riverside officer on Harlem Avenue was waiting for a freight train to pass so he could cross the tracks just south of 26th Street, when a Saturn turned westbound on the tracks right after the train cleared the crossing.

The officer told the Riverside Dispatch Center to call the Canadian National Railroad line to shut down railroad traffic. He parked his car on Harlem, got out and ran about 200 feet west on the tracks after the Saturn, police reported.

The Saturn was stuck between the railroad ties and the tracks, and the officer got the driver out of the car and took her to a parking lot near the tracks.

Phillips said she was on her way home from a bar near Harlem and Ogden in Berwyn, and she didn't know she was driving on the railroad tracks, according to police.

The officer smelled alcohol on her breath, and Phillips failed roadside field sobriety tests, police reported. She fell on the road several times during the tests, and the officer had to help her to her feet. She was arrested and taken to the Riverside police station, where she refused a Breathalyzer test.

The Saturn was towed from the tracks and placed in a DUI impound lot.

“Unfortunately, this type of arrest is not surprising," said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel in a statement. "Riverside had a similar incident in May 2014 where a female drove directly on the Burlington Northern railroad tracks and was also arrested for drunk driving.”

Photos courtesy of Riverside police.