Drunk Driver Who Drove The Wrong Way On Lake Shore Drive Gets 8 Years

By Mae Rice in News on Feb 5, 2016 6:56PM

Lake Shore Drive, as seen from the 92nd floor of the John Hancock building (photo via Roman Boed on Flickr)

A man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for drunkenly driving the wrong way on Lake Shore Drive in 2014, causing a crash that killed one University of Chicago law student and caused another permanent brain damage, according to the Tribune.

“I do not deserve to be breathing the same air as all of you," the driver in question, Erik Johnson, told the courtroom.

Now 25, Johnson was a recent Loyola graduate at the time of the crash, and had a blood-alcohol level 2.5 times the legal limit, the Tribune reports.

The crash victims—Michael Wasil, 24, and Laura Anne LaPlante, 26—were headed the correct direction on Lakeshore Drivein a cab when Johnson’s SUV crahsed into them, according to the Tribune.

LaPlante was killed; Wasil suffered brain injuries from the crash that left him struggling to talk, read, walk, and swallow, his mother Judith told the courtroom. The cab driver, who was the only person in the cab wearing a seatbelt, only injured his elbow, the Tribune reports.

“[I]n one night I lost complete control over everything I've ever been taught and everything I've ever believed myself,” Johnson said, according to the Tribune.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated DUI, the Tribune reports, and will serve a minimum of six years in prison, a sentence approved by the victims’ families.

A statement from LaPlante’s family was read aloud in court. The Tribune reports it read, in part:

Laura was a leader in her short life; for her immediate and extended family, for her academic institutions and colleagues, for her friends and associates, and for everyone who knew her. ... Our family has suffered immeasurable pain and loss from Laura's death. We are not, and will never be, the same family without her. We will continue to struggle with sadness, anxiety and a variety of yet-to-be-realized tensions in all the years to come.

According to the Tribune, Johnson finished his statement before his sentencing by saying to the victims’ families, "I have single-handedly taken away the life of a young woman already great but destined for greater things… I am devastated to think of what I have taken from you."

The fullTribune story has more details from the sentencing.