Illinois coroner: Driver who killed 7 on highway intoxicated

A coroner says a woman who drove the wrong way on Interstate 90 in northern Illinois, causing a crash that killed a family of six and a 13-year-old family friend, was intoxicated at the time

WOODSTOCK, Ill. — A woman who drove the wrong way on Interstate 90 in northern Illinois, causing a crash that killed a family of six and a 13-year-old family friend, was intoxicated at the time, a coroner said Monday.

Jennifer Fernandez, 22, of Carpentersville, who also died in the crash, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.164 percent, more than twice the legal standard for intoxication, McHenry County Coroner Michael Rein said.

The July 31 crash occurred around 2 a.m. on Interstate 90 in McHenry County, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Chicago.

Thomas Dobosz, 32, of Rolling Meadows; his wife, Lauren, 31, and five children, all traveling in a Chevrolet full-size van, were killed, Illinois State Police said. The children were ages 5 to 13.

Fernandez, driving an Acura TSX, was driving in the wrong direction “for unknown reasons” before striking the van in the westbound lanes of I-90, police said, adding that both vehicles were “engulfed in flames.”