A 21-year-old Brookfield woman was hospitalized last Saturday with what fire department officials called non-life threatening injuries, after she reportedly drove her 2000 Mitsubishi into a telephone pole and then spun out of control for some 160 feet before landing wedged between another utility pole and a railroad storage shed.
According to police, Cristina J. Reyes, was headed eastbound on Southview Avenue at a high rate of speed when her car veered south off the roadway and onto the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way, where it hit a ComEd utility pole about 8 inches in diameter.
The car was going so fast that the lower section of the pole was torn free, leaving the top section, with wires attached, suspended in the air. The car and the lower section of utility pole, meanwhile, traveled another 160 feet east before coming to rest.
When emergency personnel arrived at the scene they found that the car had flipped over and was facing west, wedged at an angle on the driver’s side between another pole and an unused storage shed.
Reyes was trapped in the car, wearing her seatbelt, according to police. Brookfield firefighters freed her from the vehicle and transported her to Loyola University medical center in Maywood for treatment of her injuries.
Brookfield Police Lt. Jeffrey Leh declined to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Police cited Reyes for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and improper lane usage.