An alleged drunk driver was charged Thursday with a head-on crash that sent everyone in the other car to the hospital.
Eugene A. Browning, 52, of Gary was charged with two counts of causing serious bodily injury when operating a motor vehicle with an ACE of 0.08% or more, two counts of causing serious bodily injury when operating while intoxicated, and seven misdemeanors.
He is not in custody, ordered held on a $60,000, or $6,000 cash surety bond.
Hammond Police responded at 5:14 p.m. Nov. 15 to Hohman Avenue. The crash happened on the bridge near Sibley Street.
Officers noted Browning appeared “confused” and struggled to find his license in his pants’ pocket.
“You see how they hit me,” he said.
Browning claimed he was driving on Hohman Avenue when the other car, a 1996 tan Honda Accord, hit his 2007 red Honda Accord. Cops told him it was standard procedure to test drivers after an injury crash.
“I need a lawyer,” Browning responded.
Officers smelled alcohol and handcuffed him. By the time the cop car pulled up to Hammond City Jail, Browning was lying down in the back seat. The officer told him to get up.
“I told you I’m handicapped, bro,” Browning said.
The officer requested a warrant for a blood draw. Browning said he wanted a lawyer when they asked if he would voluntarily take a breathalyzer.
Investigators concluded Browning was the one who crossed the center line and crashed head-on into the older Honda heading south.
A woman and her three kids — ages 19, 9, and 8 — were in the older Honda. They were eventually headed to Calumet City, she said.
When police arrived, her son, the driver, 19, was bleeding from his head. He later couldn’t remember the crash. A 9-year-old boy, who was in the back seat, was lying on the ground with a bloody face, going in-and-out of consciousness, while medics were assisting him.
The woman, who was the front passenger, looked over after the crash and saw the driver, her son, with blood coming from his mouth. For a “brief moment” she thought he was dead.
Her daughter, 8, in the back seat screamed, “My brother’s bleeding”.
Seeing the smoke from the airbags, she was scared the car would catch on fire. She tried to get her kids out of the car. She had to slap the driver to alert him. The other boy, 9, was passed out, bleeding from his ear and nose.
Browning came up to the car and said they had been in his lane. When he continued arguing, she ignored him. He was “downing” water bottles, and the woman suspected he had been drinking.
The woman and her kids were taken to the hospital and later discharged.