Franklin Jackson, 46, was driving with his wife and kids on a Chicago expressway when he lost control of the blue and gray Ford Expedition and slammed into a guardrail.
The allegedly drunk Jackson kept driving and stopped at a gas station to assess the damage done to the SUV when he realized that his son, Franklin Jackson Jr., had been ejected from the backseat window during the crash, Chicago Tribune reports.
Police told the Tribune that the boy was found in a grassy embankment alongside the highway. Emergency workers rushed the child to a nearby hospital, but he died of head trauma, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office, the Tribune reports.
According to the Tribune, the boy was sitting in the third row of seats in the SUV and was not wearing a seatbelt when he was ejected through the back window.
Jackson was taken to the hospital with a broken rib and said he didn't know his son had been thrown from the car. Police said that Jackson had "glassy and bloodshot eyes," and admitted to drinking and driving. Empty beer cans and a vodka bottle were found in the car, according to prosecutors.
Jackson is being charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI and was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail, the Tribune reports.
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