RIVERSIDE, IL — A woman under the influence of drugs rammed the car in front of her Monday after hallucinating that the driver was trying to traffic young girls for prostitution, police said in a news release Wednesday. She ended up causing a multi-car crash. None of the injuries were reported as life-threatening. It followed a multi-car crash a day earlier in Riverside, which resulted in a drunken driving suspect's arrest.



Riverside police said they determined Rashawna E. Beachem, 34, of Chicago, was under the influence of PCP and that her belief about the other driver was false. About 5:30 a.m. Monday, Beachem intentionally rammed the car in front of her all the way down the southbound lanes of Harlem Avenue from the 1600 block of South Harlem in North Riverside to where she crashed at Harlem and Ogden Avenue, the release said. When Beachem got to Harlem and Ogden, she accelerated south through the intersection, crashing into three cars, causing the multi-vehicle crash, police said. She tried to run away and had to be physically restrained by officers because she was combative, the release said. She was taken to McNeal Hospital in Berwyn for treatment.

The intersection of Harlem and Ogden was shut down for an hour and a half during the initial investigation, police said. The crash resulted in extensive damage to traffic light equipment in the area. Beachem was arrested on charges of DUI, reckless driving, following too closely, failure to avoid an accident, no insurance and resisting a police officer.