Youngstown mom pleads 'not guilty' after crashing car with infant inside
A Youngstown woman pleaded "not guilty" to five separate charges after her SUV crashed in Warren while her infant son was in the back seat.
A Youngstown woman pleaded "not guilty" to five separate charges after her SUV crashed in Warren while her infant son was in the back seat.
Martha Sandino-Rios, 36, was arraigned Monday on charges of endangering children, drug possession, driving under the influence, failing to keep assured clear distance and failing to use proper child restraints.
Responding to a call of reckless driving on Friday afternoon, police found that a Ford Expedition had rear-ended a van at East Market Street and Elm Road.
Police say the woman's five-month-old son was in the SUV's back seat. He appeared to be unharmed, but the officer says he was not properly strapped into the infant car seat.
A college student, who was in a car behind the driver, called 911 before the accident.
"She was swerving from lane to lane and was going into the snow on the side of the road so that kind of made me nervous. None of the cars knew where she was going to go so we tried to stay backwards and then once she got off at the same exit as me I saw her nodding off at the wheel and going over the curb of the road," explained Tiffany of Warren.
Sandino-Rios, 36, blamed the crash on a mechanical failure of her SUV.
The officer, who says he found a bottle of pills in the car, says that Sandino-Rios exhibited slurred speech and her pupils were dilated.
The woman told police that she obtained the pills from a doctor in California, and had taken two of them for a migraine about six hours earlier.
The police report identifies the pills as Gabapentin, which according to U.S. National Library of Medicine, can be used to treat chronic pain.
Police say that Sandino-Rios stumbled during a field sobriety test.
Both the mother and infant were taken to the hospital where Sandino-Rios agreed to submit a urine sample to be tested.
A worker from Mahoning County Children Services took the baby to place in the care of a relative of the mother.
Sandino-Rios was booked into the Trumbull County jail.
Her bond is set at $2,500.