A Chicago woman has been charged with driving under the influence in connection with a crash in Will County that resulted in the death of a 46-year-old passenger in her car.

About 7:30 a.m. Monday, Rita L. Mullins, 32, of the 300 block of South Kedzie Avenue, was booked into the Will County jail on two counts of aggravated DUI.

Mullins is being held at the jail on a $500,000 bond. She needs to post $50,000 for her release.

On Aug. 18, Mullins had a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit while driving a black 1997 Mercedes-Benz on Interstate 57 just south of Peotone Road in Will County, according to court records.

Curby D. Howard, of Chicago, was a passenger in her car, police said.

About noon, Mullins was traveling south on I-57 at milepost 328 when she drove off the right side of the roadway “for unknown reasons” and struck a tree, according to the Illinois State Police, the agency that investigated the crash.

Mullins was hospitalized for minor injuries, police said.

Howard was flown to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 2:40 a.m. Aug. 19, said Natalia Derevyanny, spokeswoman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Howard died from multiple blunt force injures because of the car “striking a fixed object,” Derevyanny said.

The manner of his death was deemed an accident by the medical examiner’s office.