Accused drunken driver charged in fatal crash
by Meg Sullivan
staff reporter
An Orland Park man was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence (DUI) in a car crash last week that killed his friend, police said.
Nick Sord, 22, crashed his car at around 4:20 a.m. last Thursday morning at 147th Street and Oak Park Avenue in unincorporated Cook County, police said. Tests showed his blood-alcohol level was .236, almost three times the state’s legal limit of .08, according to the Cook County sheriffs police.
Sord’s passenger, Jessica Me-jia, 20, of New Lenox, who had previously dated Sord, was killed in the crash. According to police, Sord had picked up Mejia from her family’s home and he was driving westbound on 147th Street when his Mercedes SUV hit a light pole then careened into a ditch and partially rolled. Neither occupant was wearing a seatbelt.
Sord told sheriff’s investigators he had been out with friends that night, then he picked up Mejia and they were headed to his home in the 10600 block of Churchill Drive in Orland Park.
Miss Mejia, a student at the University of Illinois Chicago, was pronounced dead at the scene of multiple injuries, while Sord was treated and released from Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He suffered a broken wrist and lacerations, police said.
Sord’s bond was set at $200,000 Saturday. He is expected to appear again in court Jan. 21 in Bridge view.
A prayer service was held for Miss Mejia yesterday at Kurtz Memorial Chapel in Frankfort. A funeral Mass was said at Sacred Heart Church in Palos Hills.
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