A San Antonio woman is facing serious charges after police say they found her early Sunday sitting in a vehicle with five children and suspected she had been driving while intoxicated. Officers were called to an apartment complex on Riverside Drive near East Southcross Boulevard on the Southeast Side after a reported dispute.
What police say
According to police, the call came in from a tow truck driver who reported an altercation and told officers the woman began chasing him in her vehicle and trying to run him down. When police arrived and turned on their lights and sirens, they say the driver reversed into a patrol car. Officers reported smelling alcohol when she got out of the vehicle.
Inside the vehicle, officers found five children. Police told KSAT the children appeared to range in age from about 1 to 10 years old.
Why this matters
Driving while impaired with young passengers is treated as a major public safety issue in Texas, where children are especially at risk in crashes and chaotic roadside situations. State safety officials and public campaigns have repeatedly called attention to the toll of DUI crashes. TxDOT has reported thousands of DUI alcohol related deaths statewide in recent years and runs the Drive Sober initiative to discourage impaired driving. When child passengers and suspected intoxication collide, it tends to put a case squarely on the radar of prosecutors and child welfare investigators.
Children's status and booking
Police booked the woman into the Bexar County jail on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and five counts of endangering a child, according to the police report. The document does not specify how she is related to the children.
A Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokesperson told KSAT that the children are not currently in DFPS custody. Authorities said they did not have additional information yet about whether formal charges had been filed with prosecutors at the time of the report.
Legal implications
Texas law includes a statute for abandoning or endangering a child that can be charged as a state jail felony or a higher-level offense depending on the circumstances. The language appears in Texas Penal Code §22.041. Separately, operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a passenger younger than 15 is a state jail felony under Texas Penal Code §49.045.
How the case moves forward will depend on what is in the police report, the results of any field sobriety tests or bloodwork, and follow up by child welfare investigators and the Bexar County District Attorney's Office.
