20-Year-Old Woman Charged With DUI In Car-Versus-Home Crash

BEACH PARK, IL — A Beach Park woman is facing several charges after a December car crash in which the car flew into a home on Yorkhouse Road. Yajaira Gallaga, 20, of Beach Park, was arrested on Sept. 30.

On Dec. 29, around 1 a.m., Lake County deputies were sent to a house in the 10000 block of W. Yorkhouse Road on a call of a crash with injuries. They arrived to find a Chrysler Sebring crashed into a home, almost upside down.

A release from the sheriff's office says Gallaga was driving east on Yorkhouse when, for an unknown reason, she veered off the roadway and crashed into the home, which was luckily unoccupied.

It was "incredibly amazing nobody was killed," Sgt. Christopher Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff's Office told Patch.

The release says the home was deemed uninhabitable due to the extent of the damage caused.

Gallaga was able to get out of the car and walk to a nearby home to ask for help. She was taken to an area hospital with non life-threatening injuries. Authorities said in a Dec. 29 press release that they believed alcohol was involved.

An updated press release from the sheriff's office said Gallaga was arrested without incident at her home on Sept. 30.

Gallaga is facing the following charges, all misdemeanors:

• DUI alcohol
• Alcohol concentration .08 or more
• DUI drugs
• Driving under combined influence of alcohol and drugs
• Any amount of drug, substance, compound in blood or urine

She's currently being held at the Lake County Jail on $25,000 bond.

"Alcohol and operating a vehicle don’t mix. If you’ve been drinking, don’t risk getting behind the wheel," Sheriff John Idleburg said in the Dec. 29 press release. "Find an alternative method to get to where you’re going – it’s simply not worth risking your life and the lives of others."