PLUM BOROUGH, Pa. — A mother is facing charges after police said she was driving under the influence on Sunday with her 4-year-old in the car.
Plum Borough police responded to Maple Street after someone called 911 and said they saw a woman stumble out of her vehicle and get back in with a young child inside. The caller believed she was intoxicated.
Officers said they located the woman, later identified as Christine Lynn Kregiel, 33, running two stop signs and driving over the yellow line in her Chevy Equinox.
After pulling Kregiel over, police said she was crying, her speech was slurred and her clothes were disheveled. Police also said her 4-year-old was in a car seat in the back unrestrained.
“We take the safety of kids as a paramount and really try to go the extra mile to make sure these kids are safe,” said Det. Joe Little, Public Information Officer for the Plum Borough Police Department.
Court documents said she failed a series of field sobriety tests, refused a blood test, something investigators said she’s required by law to do. She was then taken to the police department.
“When you first get possession of your driver’s license, you actually sign something called the Implied Consent Law, which means you are going to consent to a blood or breath test, and if you refuse to do so, you will automatically lose your driver’s license for a certain amount of time,” Little said.
Police said the 4-year-old child told them that “mommy had him hide her medicine,” then handed them a small coin purse containing 12 stamp bags of suspected heroin and a rolled-up $1 bill.
Kregiel is facing charges including driving under the influence, careless driving and endangering the welfare of a child.
“We are thankful and proud of our citizen who made us aware of this so we could better act for that child to make sure that child wasn’t injured,” Little said.
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