A woman charged with putting a pedestrian into the ICU Sunday night could spend the time until her trial behind bars after her family said it could only scrape together $2,500 in bail, not the $500,000 set by Judge James Coffey.

Coffeey agreed with a request from the Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Brian Brodigan for the high bail for Kathleen Abban due to the nature of the victim's condition - he has a broken neck and bleeding in his brain and "it's not clear whether he'll make it," Brodigan said. Also, Abban was convicted of OUI in Quincy in 2007, he said.

Abban's attorney argued for the lower bail on charges of operating under the influence, second offense, operating under the influence causing serious injury and leaving the scene of an accident, saying she was no threat to flee: She's a Dorchester native, her father, brother and boyfriend were in the courtroom and she's had a steady job with the T for 10 years.

And while she apparently fled the scene after hitting the man around 7:30 p.m. on Columbia Road near 93, she pulled up about a half mile away, then walked back to where the man lay on the ground to talk to troopers, which he said indicated her desire to do the right thing, he argued.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Brodigan, however, told Coffey that Abban didn't just park down the street. After hitting the man - at an estimated 35 m.p.h.and leaving him on the median strip, she hit a guard rail with such force that she had to first back up to drive away, he said., adding the state trooper investigating the crash found pieces of the guard rail on the street.

And while she did ultimately agree to take a breath test - after failing field sobriety tests - she blew a 0.25, or roughly three times the legal limit, Brodigan said, adding she told the trooper investigating the crash she was on her way home from the Shannon Tavern in South Boston, where she allegedly had four drinks.