Overmedicated Mom Drives with Toddler, Teenage Daughter Calls Police

On Friday, Aug. 24, a Snellville woman was driving down Janmar Road toward Highway 124. In the backseat were her daughter, 17, and son, 2. 

According to her daughter, the woman was under the influence of medication and should not have been driving. At one point, she slammed on her brakes to avoid hitting a vehicle, causing her son, whose car seat was not secure, to tumble forward and injure his head on the driver's seat in front of him. 

The mother did not seem to notice what had happened. Upset, the daughter forced her mother to pull over into the Lowes parking lot. 

Another witness told police that the car was being driven at a high speed. 

When police approached the vehicle and mother, they asked her if she was under the influence of any substances.

"No, I don't see what the problem is," she told police.

Officers reported that her speech was slurred and her eyes were glassy. They pointed to the child safety seat and informed her that it was not secured, but she seemed unable to comprehend what they were telling her.

When the officer repeated himself, she slowly went over to the safety seat and began lethargically fumbling with the seat belt. 

After performing the Standardized Field Sobriety Evaluations - and after the mother failed all of them - she was placed under arrest for driving under the influence (DUI), DUI - endangerment of a child and issued a citation for a Child Safety Seat violation. 

(Editor's note: details of this story were taken from a Snellville Police incident report.)